


I Saved The World Multiple Times, It's Your Turn SOLDIER

by Sylvia_Forest



Series: The Collect of Rain Strife's Life [1]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Cid Highwind Swears A Lot, Everyone Is Alive, Implied Mpreg, M/M, Original Character(s), Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change, Swearing, Time Loop, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2020-11-08 08:55:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 40,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20832773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sylvia_Forest/pseuds/Sylvia_Forest
Summary: Cloud gets sent back in time and enjoys a simpler life as a Specialist in Shinra's regular army after quitting SOLDIER. Until he pulls a Reeve and kidnaps an infant, who just so happens to be Sephiroth's daughter. Now, Cloud has to figure out how to save the world, lead AVALANCHE, and stay hidden from Shinra but find-able to four special SOLDIERs, all while raising Rain, who looks a lot more like Cloud then Sephiroth. Sounds simple, right? Maybe it is, except this is Cloud and nothing is simple with Cloud.Or the story where Cloud has horribly kept secrets that are easily seen through by everyone, everyone important and not evil remembers every life they have lived (its been a lot), Zack is just trying his hardest to be there for his blonde brother while also keeping his friends from killing each-other and others, and Sephiroth is a love sick puppy and is also really crazy for any kind of family.Posted on Fanfiction.net under the same story title by Annibeliese. Both are me.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This is a new story that has been floating around in my head for a long while now so I finally wrote it and after many re-readings and fixing errors and making things run more smoothly, it is now ready to post.
> 
> Here's a little summary really fast of things that I will not be covering in the story as I want it to be about how Cloud and the four strongest SOLDIERs go about saving the world and living in a domestic environment while Cloud raises a baby girl. So, I will never straight up give a reason as to why Cloud is back in time in my story, only for the simple reason that I don't know why he was sent back, only that he was sent back in time too the age of four with all his enhancements but none of the 'evidence' that would give him away in blood tests and with his eyes. And yes, a lot of people will have also been dragged back with him, but I will not name them here, as the mystery around who else was brought back is suppose to be part of the wonderful fun of this story. But for simple purposes, Cloud's AVALANCHE is back with him, only because I really can't write them as anything but the strong and caring people after everything bad happened to them.
> 
> So, without further ado, I don't own Final Fantasy VII or its characters and places. The only one's that belong to me are the characters I made up to fill space and give towns and things better purpose in the story, so a lot of non-canon characters are mine. But if you have a character you think would go well in this universe I am creating, let me know and I can work on merging your characters and giving you credit for those characters.

He couldn't sit still. His stupid squad had finally done it. He was going to kill them all on the next mission. The idiots deserved it!

'What did they do?' You may ask.

Well I'll tell you! They are idiots of the highest caliber. I mean how stupid do you have to be to run towards the towering, monstrous, kill you with a single swipe Behemoth with just tiny guns, that have the worst structure and are just a hair away from jamming and exploding?! Yeah, the objective of the mission was to kill said towering, monstrous, kill you with a single swipe Behemoth, but their job in the mission was to support the SOLDIER Seconds sent out to kill it, cover fire if you will. Cover fire doesn't mean, 'Stand next to its foot and shoot it!'

Cloud finally slumped down into his seat, glaring tiredly at the idiots in the infirmary. It felt like he had been awake for weeks. At least the idiots had the sense to look sheepish and apologetic, well those that could still move anyway. No amount of Cures or anything he could come up with without total nerve surgery could save two of his squad mates. He was surprised he managed to stabilize the two before they died.

"You all are idiots," Cloud finally spoke, voice rough with overuse. Nursing these idiots back to health every hour of the day was exhausting and wearing him out, especially when he had to scream at people who didn't belong in the room, like a certain spiky black-haired SOLDIER Second that was Commander Angeal Hewley's mentee. He kept popping by to see if any of his friends were around, but more then likely keep coming because he enjoyed messing with Cloud.

"We finished the mission," One spoke up from under his helmet, that had been crushed and stuck to his head. No one could remove the helmet without major surgery which was very bad, which meant that no one could see his head and how bad he was hurt, but good in that the helmet was at least keeping him alive and slowly healing till the specialized doctor could arrive and remove the helmet and check for possible head injures. "At least we did that."

"And why is half our squad incapable of movement, and the other half off duty till the broken bones, life threatening gashes, and concussions are healed and recovered from?"

"Like you could do better, Strife," came the muffled response from the bed to Cloud's left. This one had a trooper who was never fond of Cloud, but at the moment was unable to do anything but suffer and let Cloud nurse him.

"I can walk out of this room and demand to be placed in another squad at any moment, Jones," Cloud looked around the room, before leaning back and shutting his eyes. "And I did do better. I am the only one of the entire squad that got out unscathed."

The entire squad fell silent, everyone contemplating that fact. Cloud took this moment to check the trooper next to him, not only to ensure it was the right one but to make sure he wasn't, well, dying again. Trooper Jones Ra Shin of Troop 382, wounds mostly healed, head injury to severe to be let out of bed for another two weeks. Cloud nodded in satisfaction, then plopped himself back down into the only available chair, closed his eyes and decided that a short nap wouldn't hurt anyone.

"Hey Strife," Jones called out, turning his head to look at Cloud. Cloud sighed and got up, moving to Jones' side to put his head back into the proper position to help with the healing.

"Yes?" Cloud sighed, looking down at the man, sure his irritation was very visible.

"Why aren't you doing anything with yourself?" Jones asked. "You could make a living somewhere else and settle down doing something that doesn't piss you off."

Cloud sighed and just leaned against the wall. He closed his eyes and let himself relax a bit, not fully though, he was still in Shinra. "I'm taking a break from being a hero. Waiting for the world to start ending before I do anymore heroic things."

Short quick laughs filled the room before the men laughing started coughing. Cloud sighed, again.

"A hero Strife? Your just a short wimp!"

Cloud grinned slightly. "Then what does that make your critical and comatose asses?"

A collective "Fuck you, Strife!" rang out through the room, causing Cloud to chuckle in amusement.

"He laughed," came a light whisper, everyone falling silent again.

It was in this silence that the door opened, and in entered the Squad Commander. The man troops 380 to 389 reported to. His arrival made all the injured troopers try to rise to greet him properly.

"YOU MORONS! LAY YOUR ASSES BACK DOWN!"

Everyone obeyed, going back to how they were before the door opened with a pained and grunted out 'Sir, yes sir.' Only after they caught sight of their Commanders shocked face did they realize that it had been Cloud, not the Commander, that had screamed at them.

Cloud took one look around the room to make sure everyone was in the proper place, then saluted to the Commander. "Commander, sir! How can I assist you today?"

It took the Commander a solid minute to come back to his senses, then another to remember why he was here. Clearing his throat he turned to face Cloud. "Specialist Strife, your duties are being shifted over to do whatever Professor Hojo needs done at the current moment. Would you like to inform anyone of where your going?"

Cloud inwardly groaned, he hated Hojo. "No sir. Where am I reporting to sir?"

The Commander gave Cloud an understanding look, though Cloud doubted he understood anything. "Your to report to the science lab on floor 15. Professor Hojo will be waiting. Don't make him wait longer then necessary."

Cloud saluted again and sighed. "Yes-sir." Then walked out the door. Guess his nap would have to wait, yet again. Hopefully he wasn't cranky enough to kill the creepy bastard when he saw him.

_ **~Take a break and get a snack, they good~** _

Cloud didn't know how this had happened, or why really, but after he got onto the 15th floor he asked for directions to the lab, one he didn't ever remember learning about, only to be dragged into the room, have a baby thrust into his arms, and told to deliver it, a note thrust at him as well and then kicked out and lead back to the elevators. He still had the precious bundle in his arms, and more information about what Hojo wanted to do with the child then he ever wanted to know.

When the elevator doors opened before him, Cloud found himself staring right into the face of the spikey black-haired SOLDIER Second named Zack Fair, who seemed surprised to see him. Cloud moved to the side and looked back down at the baby in his arms. Zack was going to get onto the elevator so he wanted space to keep the little one safe. When Zack didn't enter the elevator, Cloud looked up to see Zack staring at the bundle in his arms.

"Wha-" Doors slam shut. Cloud blinked. Did the elevator really just cut Zack off? Yes, Cloud realized, Yes it really did. Cloud sighed, he was doing that a lot lately, and decided he would keep a mental count of every time Zack was cut off or hurt by the elevator. Elevator one, Zack zero. Because he knew Zack's curiosity would get the better of him, and a blonde trooper carrying a baby was too tempting for Zack.

Cloud looked down at the note, carefully shifting the baby close to him. 'Deliver to Sephiroth at all costs. Failure to do so will result in termination and execution.' Cloud moved his eyes to the baby once again. He doubted anyone here actually knew how to raise a child, and the note only said to deliver the baby to Sephiroth, not make him keep it. Cloud could work with this, now which floor did Sephiroth reside on?

"Heya Spike," came the call from above, and Cloud refused to look up. "What are you doing with a baby?"

Cloud kept his eyes trained on the baby and held the note up for Zack, deciding that yeah, he was going to exploit the note for his own purpose so he better start learning more about the little one in his arms. The first thing Cloud actually noticed as he moved the blanket aside was hair so silver it was almost blond, and the child had brilliant bright blue eyes like his.

"Poor Spike," Zack cooed from above, Cloud counted to ten and then looked up at Zack, who had opened his mouth to say something after catching Cloud's attention, only for the elevator to lurch and send Zack tumbling into the elevator and face first on the floor, Cloud looking bored and unimpressed the entire time. Zack would be fine. Elevator two, Zack zero. This game was kind fun, certainly funnier then tending to dying comrades and the whims of mad scientists.

"Ow," was all Zack said when he managed to peel his face off the floor.

"And that's what you get for sitting on the elevator," Cloud rolled his eyes and held his hand out, not much room but he could hull the SOLDIER up if he took his hand. "Dumbass."

Zack pouted and took Cloud's hand, only to yelp as Cloud shifted and hulled him onto his feet as if helping a child stand up after a fall. People couldn't normally do that with Zack, or any SOLDIER really, it was hard to move them if they didn't want to get moved.

"Can you help me get access to where ever in this building, General Sephiroth is?" Cloud said, watching as Zack started to do squats after hitting a button on the elevator panel, something Cloud forgot to do when he entered the elevator, good thing only Zack came by, it would be hard to explain to anyone else what he was doing just standing around in an elevator, or could help him get to where Sephiroth was.

"Sure I can Spike!" Zack exclaimed happily. "Just let me know when you two are gonna have another baby so I can be there, Kay?"

Cloud groaned. Zack always had a bad sense of humor and joking about the baby being his and Sephiroth's was just the start of the hell he would endure until he got to Sephiroth. Cloud prepared himself for the ride with Zack and looked back down at the baby in his arms, realizing that he still didn't know the little ones gender. Carefully, Cloud shifted the blankets enough to lift the small diaper and smiled. He always enjoyed taking care of little Marlene, and always wanted a daughter to call his own, so this just made his day.

The baby girl cooed softly as Cloud gave her his finger, ignoring how Zack was watching him interact with her. It didn't matter, soon Cloud would be walking out of the building with her and his things and would be as far away from all of this as he could. Shinra was no place to raise a baby.

And if his smile got wider when the doors opened then slammed closed on Zack's right leg as he was leaving, well no one had to know, even if the soft glow of his materia gave away he was the cause this time. Demi was always useful. Still, if asked, the elevator was up to three while Zack still had zero.

Zack fell face first to the floor, bright red in embarrassment as Cloud stepped up beside him, the baby girl giggling in his arms. "Get up SOLDIER, its not the end of the world."

Zack chuckled and smiled, then used his legs to bounce back up into a standing position in a movement so flexible and graceful it had Cloud wondering how the man pulled it off. "Your right, Spike," He began, then chuckled. "Though it might be the end of your sex life." And then he was off, running in the direction of where ever Sephiroth was.

Cloud growled. Zack was going to get it when he caught up with him. "That man never changes does he?" Only the squirming of his little girl made him realize he was tightening his grip on her. He sighed and relaxed, pulling the girl higher to him, resting her head on his chest and cuddling her like that as he made his way after Zack. "It's the right floor at least so I guess just looking for Zack should help me find Sephiroth, right?"

Cloud smiled again and shook his head, leaning down to place a soft kiss on his bundles head. He had't even had her in his arms for a day and he was already attached. Hopefully Sephiroth would agree to help him put the baby in his custody before he left Shinra all together.

"ZACHARY FAIR," Came the very loud and very close shout. Cloud froze. "YOU GO BACK THIS SECOND AND BRING THAT TROOPER HERE PROPERLY!"

Everything was calm for a moment, until Zack came barreling past him. Zack saw him for sure, but when your pants are suddenly on fire and burning you don't really want to stop until you have a source of water to put it out. What Zack didn't see was the fire materia in his hand along with a Demi, one that was used to send Zack into the elevator doors and down the shaft. He really should not push his own luck like this messing with Zack where the Firsts could hear or see him, but Zack deserved it.

When Cloud stopped outside the first open office he found, he was kinda worried when he found SOLDIER Commander Angeal Hewley livid with anger and Genesis Rhapsodos barely hiding his chuckles. Then he saw General Sephiroth looking at the two confused as he laid on a couch, eye brow cocked in confusion. Cloud looked at the nameplate beside the door to see it read Commander Angeal Hewley.

Cloud shrugged and was about to knock on the door frame, when a loud hollow bang rang throughout the floor, from the elevator. Cloud looked backwards at the elevator, blinked twice, then shrugged and looked back into the room, hand still posed to knock on the door frame, when he caught that all three men were staring at him.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" Angeal asked, messaging the bridge of his nose, trying to control his anger.

"I need to speak with General Sephiroth," Cloud started, only to stop and look back at the elevator. "Hang on a moment, sir." Cloud sighed, then walked into the room and looked at Sephiroth, who had sat up at the mention of his name. "I need you to hold her for a moment while I go free the idiot. I'll be back to explain in a moment or two." Then carefully deposited the little girl onto Sephiroth's lap and happy with how Sephiroth was suddenly holding her like she was glass, Cloud nodded and then turned and headed to the elevator, only to look down through the open elevator doors.

His revenge on Zack had just caved in the only elevator he could access with his card, he needed to find another way out, one that wouldn't make him lose his daughter. He had seen the wonder and love showing already in Sephiroth's eyes when his daughter was handed over.

His eyes narrowed in thought, maybe he could use this to his advantage. Sephiroth wanted his daughter. With mild delight, Cloud realized he could pull a Reeve and just kidnap the baby girl, but right in front of Sephiroth, instead of taking her while he was off on a mission.

"OW," came the echo from within the elevator, breaking Cloud from his thoughts. But first Zack needed help.

"You impaled or just laying on the elevator?" Cloud called down, shifting through the bag at his hip, popping a brace on and then filling the slots with a Demi, Cure, and Ice.

"I think my leg is broken but I'm just laying here for the moment," came the response.

Cloud nodded, to himself more then Zack, then jumped into the elevator shaft, grabbed the cords, and let gravity bring him down, ignoring the frightened shout that followed him from above. One, if not all, of the top three were concerned when he went down. Cloud gave enough power to the materia to light up the dark shaft in time to swing off the cords and jump to the wall to avoid landing on Zack.

"Holy hell, Spike!" came the startled call. Cloud ignored it in favor of looking at Zack's broken leg, then the elevator.

"Be glad you caved it in, or we both would be dead when it raises," Cloud stated calmly as if this happened every day, before he started to feel both of Zack's legs, trying to find out how much was broken. "And be glad I know how to deal with broken bones or I would have dragged your ass up the shaft and left you to the Firsts up there."

Zack opened his mouth to respond, only to shout out in pain as Cloud swiftly snapped the bone back into place, then cast the highest level cure he had access to with this baby materia before making a stint of ice.

"Up and use caution," Cloud warned. "Ice isn't the strongest thing to use for this, but it'll help the swelling and keep it in place long enough for us to get back to the top. Now be a rag-doll and let me carry you up."

"That's not a good idea, Spike," Zack said, slowly trying to stand, but wincing as he put weight on his leg. Cloud's eyes narrowed, it was more then a broken leg then, Zack probably landed on his ankle wrong before he snapped his leg as well.

Cloud rolled his eyes and shifted power to the Demi, "Suit yourself then." Then slowly started to rise, using Demi to carry him to the top. When he stepped out of the shaft he moved the Demi to Zack and brought him up, but he didn't take his eyes off the three Firsts watching him from five feet away.

Cloud smiled softly as he saw Sephiroth was still holding his little girl in his arms, and sighed when he was able to get his baby back, thanking Sephiroth with a slight nod of the head, taking note of the disappointment and love he saw in those emerald green eyes, before turning around and dragging Zack the last bit into the hall, and then smacked him hard enough to make Zack stumble.

The strangled cry from Zack and the three sets of eyes boring fire into him did nothing to stop the words that flowed from Cloud's mouth, not even the puppy eyes Zack started to give as Cloud lectured him about telling the person healing him about everything wrong and not just one thing. Growling out complaints about stupid SOLDIER's and them not knowing how to be practical and efficient more towards that end, Cloud pulled out his fully mastered cure and threw the highest spell on Zack.

"Jump," was all Cloud said after, eyes cold as ice and hard as stone. The only thing not hard in his demeanor was him rocking back and forth slowly to lure his little girl into a calm state.

Zack jumped, and when he landed with no wince and no pain, Cloud nodded satisfied.

Then turned to the three dumbstruck Firsts. Clearly no one had yelled at anyone like that in front of them before, and it shocked them. His attention moved to Sephiroth.

"General Sephiroth," Cloud began, waiting for Sephiroth to give him his undivided attention. "This young girl was given to me to deliver to you from Professor Hojo. He say's she is your daughter and you are to raise her until he's ready to turn her into a SOLDIER stronger then you. His instructions on the note say other wise. He said to deliver her to you and nothing else."

Cloud could see Sephiroth's hate showing, his hand twitching towards his sword. Cloud mentally smirked. Sephiroth wanted his daughter, that much was clear, but if he was going to kill Hojo or him was kinda hard to tell.

"So I have fulfilled my end and gave her to you," Cloud started, a small grin forming on his face. "And you gave her back, so I'm going to tell you right now that unless you follow me, your not seeing her again." Sephiroth's eyes narrowed and glared into Cloud's, his hand on the hilt of Masamune. Cloud just smirked up at him. "He never said you had to accept her, or that I had to bring her back if you didn't want her." He saw the gears turning, and Cloud knew that was the time to leave, Sephiroth would figure it out. So, Cloud turned and walked towards the closest window, hoped what he was about to do would work, and turned back around to look at them all, and see the exact moment that Sephiroth connect the dots.

Just as Sephiroth took a step forward, intent on stopping or killing him, Cloud turned and kicked the window, letting himself relax a little bit as it shattered into a thousand little pieces, and then stood on the edge, the wind blowing his outfit and hair around. With a smirk, Cloud looked Sephiroth right in the eyes.

"I'm off now. Tell Troop 382 I said sorry before they pass Kay? And if any of you ever decide to leave Shinra for whatever reason," Cloud looked at them all, and gave a small genuine smile. "The mountains are a great place to hide out and live."

And with that, Cloud let himself fall backwards out of the window, baby girl hidden from the force of the wind in her blanket and his clothes. The shocked faces watching him fall were icing on the cake for what he had done, as were their eyes following him and then flapping of leather as they followed him. Smiling like an idiot as the chase he started, he swung his body around and let a blade as big as him form in the hand not holding his daughter and made a large crack through the building as he used the friction of the blade in the building to slow him down, only to push off the building and make the sword disappear into thin air. He landed on his feet and ran, hearing the four following him curse as they had to roll to avoid injures and then continued to run after him as soon as they rolled to their feet, going just as fast as he did into Midgar. But really this was his area of expertise, he could avoid them for years in Midgar, even if they constantly searched for him, but Cloud knew he had to leave Midgar now before one of the Firsts or Zack were able to catch up to him. Cloud made one stop before he was gone from the city completely, laughing as he roared across the wastes on Fenrir towards the next town.

No motorcycle or helicopter could keep up with his baby, he should know, he built Fenrir from scratch this time making it as little dependent on Mako energy as possible while making it run faster then ever. They wouldn't be able to catch him for a long time, even if they followed his wheel trail through the wastes.

But for now, Cloud knew he had work to do to stop Shinra and their experiments, and now the unexplained and unplanned addition of Sephiroth's child, which looked more like a mix of him and Sephiroth every time he looked down at her sleeping face.

The little one was his daughter now, and she needed a name to reflect that. His precious princess. Crossing the mountain like terrain and watching his daughter's little fluff wave in the wind, Cloud was reminded of watching rain fall. Cloud knew then what he would name her, his Precious Princess, his little Rain-cloud, little miss Rain Strife.

Now if only Sephiroth and the others would take the bait and leave Shinra to follow them, then Sephiroth would see a family he could have with Cloud and little Rain, while the other three acted as Uncles to his precious daughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Baby Rain and Cloud had to leave Shinra in a really over the top dramatic way to make the impression of taking Sephiroth's daughter from him for good stick. He also might have spent a bit too much time with the over dramatic Genesis in his time and is now doing this because why not? It worked for Reeve, so it should work for him, right? But the dramatics are also a way of Cloud basically showing anyone who remembers the future or past lives in the group of SOLDIERs that he remembers and he can help them, but its more like he remembered how Genesis said one time how Sephiroth was a fool for drama and even though they fought about it a lot, Sephiroth loved it when things were dramatic and over the top.
> 
> Until the next chapter! Good bye Lovelies!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was really hard to write because I kept wanting to rush the plot along without moving the characters into place. It took a lot of rereading, walking away, and rewriting to make this chapter get finished. I had to write it on my phone, then switch to my laptop to get the chapter just right, and have the proper format and correct grammar.
> 
> Again! I don't own FFVII or its characters. The only thing in this story that is mine is Rain and the plot.

"I want the name of that damn blonde trooper and all available information on him," Sephiroth growled as he flopped back down on the couch in Angeal's office. Him, Angeal, Genesis, and Zack had just gotten back from chasing the blonde trooper all the way to the mountain terrain surrounding Midgar and to the forest beyond before they had to give up the chase. It infuriated him greatly. And all of them were dead tired from chasing the motorcycle riding trooper on foot.

"His name is Cloud Strife," Zack began, flopping down onto the floor, his back against the arm of the sofa, his eyes closed. "Specialist Cloud Strife of Troop 832. Allowed the use of multiple materia as long as he pays for them all himself and levels them himself. He was reported to be the only one of his troop to walk away from their last mission without a major injury."

"And how do you know this, pup?" came the irritated voice of Genesis, who had flopped into the love seat in Angeal's office. Genesis looked the worst out of all of them, he was tired and his eyes were staring blankly ahead, even if he still held that air of superiority and irritation.

Zack cracked opened his eyes to look at Genesis. "Because I made it my personal business to look into the trooper squad whose mission report was extremely different from the SOLDIER second's mission report. Both Kunsel and the leader of the Second Class SOLDIERs on the mission expressed concern about the major different endings for the reports. And for my buddy's trooper squad."

Angeal groaned as he finally flopped down into his seat behind his desk. "What mission was that?"

"The behemoth extermination mission outside Midgar," Zack said. He stretched his arms out and folded them behind his head as he relaxed against the couch further. "The one where behemoth's broke free from the construction zones of Midgar and were chased out by the infantry patrols. They made a den in the mountains around Midgar and a squad of Second's and one trooper squad went to dispose of them."

Angeal frowned and pulled up the mission reports database on his computer, then began scrolling through the list to find the mission reports. "How long ago was this mission?"

"One month ago."

Angeal sighed and frowned, clicking filled the room as everyone listened to Angeal searching for the report. "I found the report written up by Specialist Cloud Strife of Troop 832. Nothing seems wrong or off about this report. Its filled out correctly and detailed everything that went down on the mission that he saw and was conscious for. His squad were put into critical condition because they were too close to the behemoths, SOLDIER Seconds were injured because of his troops incompetence, until only the leader was the last man standing. He claims that he was injured by one of the behemoths and passed out while the last Behemoths were taken care of. When he woke up he attended to the people who needed major medical attention and took everyone he couldn't help to the nearest med bay, until transfer was available to bring them to the tower."

"I would also be worried about the troopers," Sephiroth spoke up. "Clearly they were not being lead correctly and that led to their injuries. I would also look for the troopers to ensure they were well and alive."

Zack raised his hand above his head and looked up at it, barely contained anger lacing his voice. "Read the SOLDIER report."

Sephiroth watched with interest as Zack tightened his hand into a fist as if clinging to something, only loosening his hand and letting it fall to his side as Angeal let out a strangled sound. Angeal had found the SOLDIER report.

"SOLDIER report reads that the mission was going bad from the start. The troopers were not listening to the Specialist and his orders and all of them but the Specialist were causing the SOLDIER's to be unable to do the job correctly. Its reported that every SOLDIER and trooper but the SOLDIER leader and the Specialist were knocked unconscious and were hanging onto life by a thread." Angeal summarized. Then he looked up at the two firsts watching him. "The SOLDIER leader reported being backhanded by one of the last three behemoths remaining in the nest and slamming into the rock face. He felt and heard his back snap, leaving only the Specialist able to fight. When he regained consciousness the behemoths were dead and the SOLDIER's were healed enough to live, but not fully, while all the troopers and the Specialist were gone."

"Troop 832 went on that mission. Everyone but the Specialist, Cloud Strife, were admitted to a hospital in urgent care, Cloud doing what he could to stabilize the troops and heal them. Bringing them back to Shinra for better medical care didn't stop him from caring for his troop. He never would of gone on a mission his troop couldn't handle, or one he couldn't protect them on." Zack said, standing from his position on the floor. "Well, I better go down and make sure all the severely injured troopers are getting the best care the medical team can manage. Honestly, Cloud was the only one keeping them alive. They are beyond our care now, but hopefully medical can save some of them."

Sephiroth watched as Zack walked out of the room, his normal puppy personality gone. Giving up wasn't like Zack, neither was this defeated outlook towards a situation. This death hardened and tired warrior wasn't like Zack at all.

Zack's voice carried back into the room as he walked down the hall, loud enough for the three firsts to hear him clearly, even though they could tell he didn't mean for them to hear. "I hope you know what your doing Spike. I can only do so much from where I am to help you if something goes wrong."

Angeal was the one to speak up only after Zack's footsteps had long faded to silence. "Zack knows Cloud personally, what you said probably hit a nerve Sephiroth."

Sephiroth sat up on the sofa and faced the two, while ignoring the last part of what Angeal said. "He also knows more then he's telling us. Zack might be able to lead us to where this Cloud Strife is."

Genesis sighed, and let himself sprawl ungracefully in the love seat. "So much trouble for one small baby. Honestly, why would you believe him without proof that the girl was yours?"

Sephiroth sighed. He didn't know if they would believe him or think he was insane. But Genesis had asked, and he promised to tell them everything when asked when they were younger, so he had to bite the bullet.

"I felt her as soon as they stepped onto this floor," He began, watching them both for their reactions. "As I can with everything that has my DNA or cells implanted into them. Hojo made sure of that while I was younger."

But was it the girl he felt, or was it that trooper? Maybe both because he felt them both as they moved, the girl in his arms and the trooper moving towards the elevator. He felt the trooper all the way to the mountains before the connection vanished. He felt the girl until the blonde trooper vanished from sight.

As lost in thought Sephiroth was, he almost missed the way Genesis' eyes darkened at the mention of feeling the girl. Did Genesis know something?

"Well," Genesis suddenly exclaimed, the darkness gone from his eyes. "We have been running around everywhere and I feel like I need a shower and rest. I'll be in my room if you need me."

Then Genesis was gone in a flashy swish of his coat, leaving Sephiroth and Angeal staring after him until the stairwell door slammed shut at the end of the hall.

"Well, regardless about all that," Angeal began, catching Sephiroth's attention once again. "I'm sure the young girl is safe with Cloud Strife and in no danger. He has been proven time and time again to always know what he is doing. Or at least in all the mission reports that have been written up about him."

Sephiroth nodded. "Your right. He doesn't seem like the kind of person who would take a baby away if he couldn't care for it."

**~Did you know FFVII has the biggest known depressed character in all of the FF franchise? Find a more depressed person then Cloud in the FF franchise, I dare you~**

He messed up. And it wasn't a small misstep while fighting a monster. No, this was bigger.

Cloud Strife, The Savior of the Planet, the hero who killed Sephiroth multiple times, Leader of AVALANCHE, knew many things and could solve many problems with a clear head and/or his brute strength. The only thing Cloud couldn't do? Raise a child.

Sure, he helped raise Denzel and Marlene, and even that one time when they had more orphans then they could count living in his house cause they had nowhere else to go, but he had never raised a child. All the orphans could care for themselves, he just had to be the provider and protect them.

But Rain couldn't do anything for herself and needed him to do everything for her. He didn't know what he was doing. Even with the help from the women in the last town and tips on how to take care of her he honestly didn't know what he was doing.

"Excuse me?" Came a sudden voice.

Cloud jolted out of his inner panic attack and looked at the person. Small and young, but easily recognizable. Standing before him, hands on her hips, looking annoyed that he was ignoring her, was Yuffie. The small ninja that made his life hard, but could help him... Right?

"Now that I got your attention," She began, flipping her short strands in a very Tifa like manor. "Where have you been? We have been waiting for you to show up for almost a year now!"

Cloud blinked and just shrugged. "Not sure. Didn't get any notification you guys were trying to reach me. Hey Yuff-."

"Didn't get any notification?!" Yuffie screeched. "We have been calling and texting for the past six months!"

Cloud shifted uneasily in his seat, unconsciously bringing Rain closer to him. "I lost my phone while fighting a dragon almost a year ago."

Yuffie then started yelling at him again calling him names and saying he can't do anything right, then turning around and flailing her arms as she continued her rant. The sudden and loud noise that was Yuffie had started to upset Rain, and only Cloud's enhanced hearing allowed him to hear her start crying over Yuffie's yelling.

Cloud sighed and pushed Yuffie hard enough to make her stumble and stop talking, then shifted again to put Rain down in front of him on Fenrir and give her his pinky finger, smiling lightly as she started to suck on it.

"Is that a baby?" Yuffie said, looking at Rain in awe.

"It's General Sephiroth's baby," Cloud said admitted as he used his free hand to dig through his things. Thank god the mothers in the last town were very understanding and helpful in gathering supplies for traveling with a baby. "Where did they put her bottle? I know its in this bag, I watched them pack the entire thing."

"Sephiroth's child?!" Yuffie gasped. She looked at Cloud like he had grown multiple heads, and had gone insane. Which isn't really wrong.

"Aha!" Cloud exclaimed, pulling out a warm water tight satchel. "There you are!" He opened it one handed and pulled out one of the filled baby bottles within. "Yuffie I'll explain everything, but please back up for a second."

Yuffie fell silent, watching as Cloud pulled his only glove off and tested the bottles contents, then picked Rain up and gave her the bottle. Yuffie only looked back up at Cloud for an explanation once Rain was busy with the bottle.

"Explain Cloud."

"So I'm sure you guys already know from Tifa that I left to join SOLDIER a few years ago," Cloud began, moving to sit against his bike instead of on it, looking out over the town below from his spot on the hill. "Well, I made it this time, except I dropped out of the final SOLDIER exams almost instantly. I made it to the labs and everything before I chickened out and dropped to be a trooper."

"Hojo still haunting you?" Yuffie asked, understanding in her voice.

"Zack actually," Cloud said, then laughed. "Which is funny cause I wanted to join SOLDIER because of him. I wanted to get close to him, to save him this time. But when I saw him in the labs waiting room, I couldn't breath. He looked at me, and I saw his eyes widen with shock, like he knew me. Like he wasn't expecting to see me. And I booked it as soon as he started coming towards me. I booked it as fast as I could, and asked to be moved to a section of the army as far from SOLDIER as possible to never see Zack again."

Cloud looked down at Rain when he felt the bottle being pushed away. He grabbed the nearest cloth, threw it over his shoulder, then settled her into position to burp her, groaning as he felt the regurgitated milk splatter his shirt instead of the cloth. He closed his eyes as he shifted, leaving her head against his heart and cradling her, his weight now fully against his bike.

"If you tried to get as far from SOLDIER as you can, why do you have Sephiroth's child?"

"I had to serve time in the normal army, and I ranked up promotions faster then Sephiroth himself. In the two months after I ditched SOLDIER I had gone from being the lowest trooper not even worth the dirt beneath the others shoes, to leading a squad of troopers. Another two months and I had made the rank of Specialist. It took me four months to make that rank, it took Sephiroth almost a year to make it from Third Class to First Class."

Yuffie sighed and lowered her head in between her knees. "He's just rambling now isn't he?"

Cloud smiled. "Yep. And bragging that I am better then Sephiroth." Yuffie groaned.

"Anyway," Cloud began after he finished chuckling. "During a dragon attack mission a year ago, I was nearly snapped in half by the damn thing because I was trying to avoid Sephiroth's attention, which failed horribly. When we got back to the base, Sephiroth had already called the medic team to administer the aid for what he couldn't heal, and I was taken under the doctors tender mercies until we got back to the Shinra tower, where I was moved under Zack's care and he proceeded to pester me for the week before I was deemed fine enough to leave back to my duties."

Yuffie looked at Cloud's torso and raised an eyebrow. "You healed from almost being snapped in half in a week? What did they say? Try to drag you to Hojo?"

"No, actually." Cloud sighed. "Hojo would of been better honestly. Zack dragged me into his room and basically demanded I tell him everything I remember, if any event in my life would explain why my eyes shone like the moon."

Yuffie raised her head, and frowned. "How is that worse then Hojo? Sounds to me like Zack was being a noisy friend and trying to get himself into your life after you ditched him."

"He might have done something else before and after the incident that I will never repeat out loud. Moral is: Don't let Zack guilt trip you into going to a bar with him and his friends, especially when you know Sephiroth is one of his friends."

"Cloud? What happened?" Yuffie placed a calming hand on his shoulder. "I wont judge you for anything."

Cloud sighed. Looking down at Rain's sleeping form he smiled. "I made the mistake of offering to make drinks for them after Sephiroth wanted to get out of the bar. After working with Tifa in the bar for as long as I have I knew I could mix drinks better then the current bars in Midgar, except I forgot the drinks I knew how to make could make even me drunk."

"Cloud," Yuffie began, she looked very uncomfortable. "Did you get them drunk? Did you have drunk sex with one of the SOLDIERs?"

"First off, Zack was already drunk, and he guilted me into following through. Said I owed him for speeding up my recovery and making it so I could continue walking and moving without a wheelchair. So, I made my strongest drinks for them, just to make him happy." Cloud grimaced. "When I managed to get Sephiroth drunk, I found out he is a very cuddly drunk, Angeal just passed out when I got enough alcohol in him, and Genesis was actually surprisingly silent and actually stopped quoting Loveless. Zack was also cuddly, but he fell asleep cuddling Angeal, who fell asleep on Zack's couch. So I was forced to bring Genesis and Sephiroth back to their rooms, dropping Gen off first, then getting Sephiroth back to his and then couldn't leave his apartment until Sephiroth was passed out."

Yuffie blinked and looked down at Rain. "She doesn't really look like Sephiroth. She looks more like you."

Cloud chuckled. "And I think I know why, but I need Vincent to check for me with a DNA test before I get my hopes up."

Yuffie nodded. "Well, I think it's time to get back to the others. You want me to show you the way to where we are, or are you going to go off and raise her in a small town where she can be raised normally?"

"I'm going to go raise her in the mountains. I kinda already told Sephiroth, Angeal, Genesis, and Zack that I would be in the mountains." Cloud said softly. "I'll go see the others with you, maybe Cid can give me a ride to my little mountain lodge so I don't have to put Rain in any unnecessary danger."

Yuffie sighed but stood up and nodded anyway. "So were going to be leaderless then?"

Cloud chuckled a bit. "Nope. Our base of operations is changing from Tifa's bar to my mountain lodge. I'm not leaving you guys without a leader just to raise Rain. I still lead troopers while I was in bed rest, this is not going to change anything."

Yuffie smiled brightly, and started hopping up and down in excitement. "I can't wait to spoil the little girl. I'm totally going to be the best Auntie!" Then she ran down the hill laughing, only to turn around at the bottom and wave for Cloud to hurry and follow.

So maybe he had made a mistake taking Rain when he knew nothing about babies and their needs, but he had many friends who had raised children from birth to adulthood through multiple lives who could help him. This might have been the best unplanned addition to his family yet.

"Come on, sweetie. Let's go see the rest of your new family. And hope Hojo didn't fuck you up too much while he had you."

He could work with this. Everything would be okay. He wouldn't let anything go wrong again.

**~You Know Cloud isn't the best parent, even though Marlene and Denzel love him to death as a parent, but he'll be a good mother to Rain~**

"It's as you thought," came the voice through the phone. "The mother of Sephiroth's child was enhanced. I found the records in Hojo's office."

"How old does it report her? Any experiments done?" The man asked. He was draped in the shadows of the room, keeping his voice low and quite.

"He tried to inject more J-cells into her, but they never took and were destroyed or nullified as soon as they entered her body. The girl is only two months old. She was born a week before Cloud's forced coma was ended when Hojo had no more excuses to keep him as an experiment. He was suppose to die on the mission he took not even a month later, and when he didn't Hojo tried to make Sephiroth kill Cloud and the girl together out of frustration of being unable to make proper experiments out of them." The person responded through the phone.

"But Sephiroth didn't kill them, instead he chased them to keep them close to him, because he felt the connection through the J-cells." The man stated.

"What will happen now? Sephiroth wants them by his side. Will we have to kill him, or kill Cloud and the girl?"

"We do as Cloud instructed before he left. Get as much information about Shinra to bring it down or make SOLDIERs and troopers desert, so bringing the power house down is easier." Hissed the man. "We leave Sephiroth, Cloud, and the girl to Red and the Puppy."

"Are you sure this is the right path, Boss? If anyone finds out all of us are going to be killed or made to disappear Hojo style."

A heavy sigh. "We will do this, and if things start going south all of us leave Shinra. I'll be damned if I lose any more people to this fucked up company. Get as much information to T as you can so he can pass along her physical records to Cloud through CS. Well have a more in-depth meeting tomorrow night to discuss how much we have found on the scientists and their pet projects that President Shinra doesn't know about. Keep up the good work. Good night."

"Night Boss."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we have mysteries and families. It's amazing. Zack and Genesis know things, Cloud seems really close to the top four SOLDIERs, closer then he's admitting, and now something is going to happen beyond SOLDIER and AVALANCHE in Shinra. What's going to happen next?!
> 
> Next chapter is going to be more focused on Cloud and AVALANCHE getting used to having Rain around and caring for her, and finally starting to be trolls to Shinra in a more fun way then just getting the top four SOLDIER's drunk. And maybe Cloud will open up to tell the story of why he took Rain from Sephiroth to AVALANCHE. And maybe well find out what the mystery people are doing and who they are.
> 
> So many things happening. Stay tuned for more, and if something doesn't add up or your confused about anything let me know in the comments below and I'll see if something went wrong in this chapter or if it's going to happen in the next chapter. And let me know if you guys have any theories about what is happening in this story and who the mystery people are.
> 
> Love you all!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took much longer then I thought it would and I apologize. If something seems off about Rain's development through the story let's just chalk it up to being caused by her genetics and Hojo. I tried to make this as close to being as average baby development as possible, but I needed to make her develop a bit faster than normal, even found a site that gave me the average development stages from newborn to one-year-old and decided she would develop one month faster then what that site said was the average development. Also, you get a bit more detail about how Cloud lives while with AVALANCHE and how he loves and raises his daughter, and the suspicions the others have about Rain's biological mother.
> 
> I don't own Final Fantasy 7. Enjoy.

**Chapter 3**

Cloud knew he had fucked up when he approached the Highwind behind Yuffie. He knew the instant he saw Tifa standing before the ship, her hands on her hips, battle gloves on, furry on her face, and eyes living flames. He knew when he saw Barret and Cid turn around and walk onto the ship when they saw him, hell even Vincent shot him a pity glance and then hurried onto the ship to avoid Tifa's wrath. And suddenly, Cloud wanted to turn right around and head to the lodge by himself and never see his friends again. Unfortunately, he had already told Yuffie what he was doing and where he was going, and he did have to go back to leading AVALANCHE, so that was off the table. Maybe he could make whatever made Tifa mad up to her by working twice as hard once Rain was old enough to be left alone by her self for a few hours to a day. Maybe she will have forgotten by the end of the week.

"Cloud Strife," Tifa greeted, her voice as cold as steel. "Do you have any idea how long we have been waiting for you to show up after leaving us in the dark and ignoring all our calls?"

"Since a dragon ate my phone?" Cloud asked, silently praying to whatever deity was listening that Tifa would take his question as the apology it was meant to be. Curse Tifa for scaring the ability to talk right out of him!

"So you didn't get a new phone or find a way to tell us that you lost it because?" Tifa questioned.

Cloud was suddenly very grateful for the sling holding Rain to him at the moment, he was beyond positive his hands were shaking to badly to even hold her at the moment.

Cloud looked away from her eyes when he answered Tifa, unable to look her in the eyes any longer. "Shinra has access to everything on the phones and I was in no position to go see Revee or force one of the Turks to get the new phone scrambled from the system without someone finding out that shouldn't. That and as a Shinra Specialist for the Regular Army I had no reason to use my limited just getting by funds buying a new phone when I have a working Shinra issued phone on my person, that also couldn't be scrambled or I would have been killed by the Army for being a spy even if I wasn't."

"Your full of excuses aren't you?" Tifa growled, moving to stand before him, her walk more like a predator stalking its prey than a mad friend approaching a friend. "Tell me the truth Cloud and I won't punch you into next year."

Cloud could feel his body trembling, could feel his fear skyrocketing as Tifa got closer. He could hear a stronger heart next to his head beating faster and faster, and then he collapsed to the ground on his knees holding his head, pain and terror fighting to consume him. He barely heard Tifa shout his name and then start shouting for Vincent, he barely felt Yuffie place her hand on his arm, trying to pull him out of his panic with her presence alone. What he did feel more vividly was when someone else picked him up and pulled him away from the heartbeat he clung to and then everything snapped back into place again for him.

"What the hell was that?" Tifa whispered, pulling his gasping and trembling body closer to him, holding him in a hug as she watched Vincent for answers, only to get nothing.

It took Cloud a long while to regain himself again, so long the afternoon sun had turned to dusk, but no one had dared move more than necessary, for fear of setting off another panic attack in Cloud.

"Cloud?" Yuffie asked, catching his attention. "Cloud are you back with us?"

"Yeah," Cloud nodded, shaking slightly still as he pulled away from Tifa's hug, but not away from her calming presence. "What happened?"

"You were being pulled into someone else's mind," Vincent stated, making Cloud look up at him. He looked out of place cradling the pink blankets holding Rain, keeping her calm and close to him. "And since you only started calming down when I pulled the girl away from you, I'm going to tell you it was her mind you were being pulled into."

Cloud sighed, reaching his hand out to motion Vincent closer to him. "I'm back again, Vince. Let me have my daughter back, please."

"Cloud it isn't safe for you to have her so soon after one of these attacks," Vincent began, his voice soft but firm in a way only Vincent could ever manage.

"I know okay!" Cloud yelled, slamming his hands into the ground, watching as droplets of water fell onto the back of his hands. "I know its dangerous, that I could get pulled in again, but you don't understand! None of you will ever understand!"

"Then make us understand Cloud," Tifa calmly said, placing her hand over his. "Tell us so we can help you. You are our friend and if you need help we will be there for you. So tell us so we can understand, please."

"I don't know how to make you understand," Cloud whispered. "All I know is that when I'm holding her, I feel complete like I'm holding another part of me. And it's different than when Sephiroth made me a puppet, or that one life when Jenova managed to make me her pawn instead of Sephiroth and I fought to get free because completion with her felt wrong and evil. Rain doesn't feel like that, she makes me feel at home like you guys do. Just let me have my daughter back, please."

Vincent nodded, then carefully put Rain back into the sling still hanging on Cloud. "Come. Let's get you into your room on the Highwind. You can tell us everything when your feeling better."

"Thank you," Cloud whispered, wrapping his arms around Rain's small form, not even trying anymore to hide his tears as he looked down at his sleeping daughter.

**~FINAL FANTASY 7 HYPE~**

When Cloud's mountain lodge came into view from the Highwind's observation deck, Cloud was standing close to the glass holding Rain in a sitting position against his chest so she could see her new home.

"Look, sweetie," Cloud cooed softly, moving her so she was closer to his chest. "Were home now."

Cloud smiled as Rain gurgled and squealed in delight. He knew she shouldn't have this kind of understanding yet, something inside him was screaming so, his inner parent probably, but Cloud knew her father was Sephiroth, and Hojo had her for lord knows how long, so the enhanced parent and then Hojo's meddling probably sped things up a lot, but hopefully not too much.

"Remind me again how we were roped into calling that castle a 'mountain lodge'?" Cid called out from the helm, looking down at the beautiful expansive grounds and the towering building in the middle of it all. "How many rooms does that thing have again?"

Cloud frowned as he looked down at the building again, shifting so Rain was cradled against his chest instead of sitting against it. "I think it has twelve master bedrooms with the attached master bathrooms and two walk-in closets per room, ten guest bedrooms, five guest bathrooms, a kitchen, two living rooms, a den, an armory, a library, music room, inside and outside greenhouse, a meeting room, and a rec room. Outside it has a hangar for your ships, a workshop for me to tend to Fenrir, a training ground, a flower garden, a pond, a mini forest for the wolves, and an obstacle course or as Marlene puts it, a playground. Did I miss anything?"

"Right," Cid laughed. "Your personal castle in the mountains, but no, you're too modest to call it a castle so it's your mountain lodge."

Cloud grumbled under his breath, shifting while hiding his face from view. "Shut up. It's a lodge if you compare it to Shinra's tower. Don't judge me."

Cid kept laughing harder and harder, so hard in fact that his laughter brought the rest of AVALANCHE up to the observation deck to figure out why Cid was dying of laughter so badly he didn't even realize he turned on the intercoms.

"What is going on?" Tifa asked, hands on her hips looking at both of them, a frown on her face.

"He won't stop laughing at me," Cloud said. "He keeps doing this every time we go to my lodge together."

"You mean your castle?" Tifa asked, trying hard to not laugh at Cloud as well.

"It's not a castle Tifa!"

"Yes, it's not a castle," Vincent agreed. "A castle has at least three kitchens and five dining halls, along with ballrooms and a throne room. No, if anything this is a warrior encampment inside one building that was a manor."

Cloud groaned and dropped his head onto the glass. It was his house damnit. He built it up with his own two hands, even had Vincent and Cid help build up the shops and the armory, and they continuously make fun of him for it. "You bastards helped me build it. Just land the damn ship and let me off already. Then you can go back to doing whatever the hell it was you were planning!"

The others just laughed and shook their heads in amusement. Cid did, of course, gather himself enough to land the Highwind in its designated landing pad, only after circling Cloud's home a couple more times while still laughing.

**~Cloud has a big house. Enjoy!~**

Cloud frowned as he balanced a tray on one hand and baby bottles in the other. Working in the bar was good and all for getting things like this done alone without making a mess, but he wished he had help damnnit!

Why that leather-wearing bastard choose today of all days to bring his passed out friend to him was unknown, but it was becoming a hassle that Cloud didn't want to deal with. Couldn't he have at least waited another day or two until at least Arieth's group was back?!

Cloud nearly dropped the tray when he pushed the door open with his back, losing balance with the man within pulled it open on him.

"I understand the medical supplies on the tray," the man began, eyeing what was in Cloud's hands. "But I don't understand the baby bottles."

"Not for your friend," Cloud bit out, moving around the man to place the tray on the table. "Now tend to your friend and then get both of you out. I don't need mercenaries making my life harder, leather-wearing bastard."

"You dare-!"

"Yes, I dare!" Cloud growled, turning to face the man again after cutting him off. "I am the owner of this place, and I don't see you as guests. You are just nuisances who fell onto my land injured who I will help then kick-off. Like I have with everyone else who enters my land without my permission!"

Cloud turned on his heels and stormed out of the room, baby bottles clutched tightly in his hand, teeth gritted in anger. He ignored the man who screamed profanities after him, focused solely on returning to his daughter's playroom to make sure she was okay and happy.

It had been two months since he left Shinra with Rain, two long months of watching her grow worried that she was developing too fast for her body. Thanks to the medical files Revee managed to send them through Cait, Cloud now knew when Rain was born and had her health records till the day Hojo threw her to face Sephiroth, her confirmed biological father. He was also curious as to who her mother was as no woman was noted being her mother or was willing to carry her to term. It worried Cloud that Hojo may have done something bad to her mother before he sent her off to a man who didn't know anything about babies or could even care for her on his own with his mission schedule. Sephiroth was a military tactical genius and gifted in many ways with many skills, child-raising wasn't one of them.

Cloud sighed as he opened the door to see Rain crawling around, giggling happily as she played with the puppy Zack had sent them last month as a present to his baby niece. Not that he was complaining, having a companion for his daughter to play with was always a bonus when he couldn't be with her because travelers had fallen on his land. He could even teach the puppy how to protect her if something bad was happening in the house and he had to leave her alone with the pup.

What he was surprised about was that Zack remembered their past lives, every single one of them, and Cloud's absolute favorite dog breed, the German Shepherd. What surprised him even more, was that Zack was actively trying to leave Shinra with the three firsts, even going as far as to plan with a man he called 'Red' in his letter on how to get Angeal, Genesis, and Sephiroth to leave Shinra with Zack when he left. He had also bought Cloud a new phone, claiming to his superior when asked about buying a new phone, which verified Cloud's story about people asking about why they would buy phones, that the phone he bought was for his girlfriend, because she broke hers and he wanted to get her something nice so she could stay close to him in spirit. Though why Zack decided to let him know in a letter he wrote then sent off with Arieth along with the three-week-old puppy was unknown to Cloud, but might have to do with the fact that Zack was always everywhere and nowhere at once when he was thinking.

Cloud snapped back to reality when he heard a throat being cleared behind him. He turned his head to see the man and his friend standing a few feet away, watching him.

"We thank you for your help," The one in leather said. "We'll be leaving now. Sorry for intruding on your property and endangering your family."

Cloud only nodded, watching as they walked away, pulling up his security cameras on his phone to watch them leave the grounds and then see them off for good, all while laying on the floor of his daughters playroom, smiling lightly as she started playing with her dolls, happily babbling nonsensical sounds, her puppy companion happily playing with her.

Cloud pulled up his contacts after the men were gone and scrolled to find the one he was searching for, pressing the call icon when he found the proper contact.

"Hey, it's me," Cloud started. "Can you find a nice fancy dress and a tuxedo? I'm going to sneak into Shinra's annual ball with Vincent in six days. And I don't think Vince will be able to pull off the hot but shy rich girl act as well as I can."

Cloud looked over to see Rain watching him silently as if she was categorizing him or analyzing him, maybe even judging him. It was really cute how she watched with wide-open eyes but also super creepy when you remembered no matter how fast she was growing, Rain was still only four months old and shouldn't be able to have that level of cognition no matter what that creepy bastard had done to her.

"You're looking more and more like your father every day with your eyes," Cloud said out loud, then startled when the person on the other end started yelling at him for not paying attention. "I'm sorry. Please calm down. I'll wear anything you ask as long as it's not that purple dress from hell."

After an hour on the phone with his 'fashion designer', Cloud sat up and stretched, blinking down at Rain sleeping happily with her bottle and her puppy curled close to her. He had made his plans and had Tifa ready to watch Rain for the few days it would take to do this little mission.

The hardest part of this mission was leaving Rain to be cared for by someone else. Cloud didn't like having to leave his little girl alone, for the simple fact that he hated how the bond between them caused her sorrow and confusion to reach him even harder than without the damn thing, and force him to replay them over and over long after he couldn't feel her through the bond. It hurt him, even more, when he let his mind remembered the sorrow and pain he felt the morning after Zack's party through his bond with Sephiroth and the utter confusion as to why Sephiroth was hurting so badly. He hated being reminded that his greatest enemy was once human too.

"Sweet dreams pumpkin," Cloud whispered as he stood up. His movement caused the puppy to look up at him, so he smiled down at the pup. "Take care of her Daila."

He smiled softer when he turned and heard Daila move closer to Rain, softly thumping her tail.

As the door closed behind him, his features hardened until no softness was left. It was going to be a long trip and he didn't want to make any stupid mistakes while in the heart of Shinra's domain.

**~Ball scene will appear as a separate story connected to this one. My brother and I are trying to think of stupid things Zack could do to make Cloud's life harder and what prank wars or fights they could indulge in while never leaving the ball. That will be out as soon as we come to an agreement and I type it up.~**

Cloud looked at Aerith in confusion. "Excuse me? You want to what?"

"Cloud," Aerith began, placing her hand on his shoulder. "I want to have a DNA test done on you and Rain. She's about to be nine months old, so now is the perfect time to either confirm or deny what I keep finding myself thinking."

"Aerith, you understand how crazy you sound right?" Cloud said, but confusion and doubt could be found in his eyes trying to crush the spark of hope that was slowly forming. "I'm a guy, I can't be Rain's biological mom."

"Please Cloud, just taking the test won't hurt anything," Aerith said softly, reaching across the table to place her hand on his. "We won't think any different about you if it's positive, and no one will change how they feel about Rain if it's negative. All we are doing is giving you another way to tie Rain deeper into this family."

Cloud sighed and flipped his hand over to hold Aerith's. "Okay, we can do the test, but it happens in this house with someone we trust. No doctors or scientists that would report this to Shinra."

"Thank you," Aerith smiled. "Now hows my adorable niece doing? I haven't seen her ages!"

Cloud chuckled as he stood up and started walking towards Rain's room. "You saw her last month before you went to see Zack and help the others in Wutai. That wasn't ages ago."

"Dilly Dally Shilly Shally," Aerith chanted, skipping to catch up to Cloud. "A month is too long!"

Cloud chuckled and watched as Aerith skipped ahead of him to get to Rain's room. "She will be happy to see you. She misses Auntie Aerith."

Aerith's laughter drifted behind her as she started hurrying up the stairs to get to Rain's room. Cloud shook his head with a smile on his face as he followed her up, catching up to her in time to see Rain's door being opened and to hear the excited squeal that followed.

Cloud spent the next few hours watching from the doorway or being dragged into playing with them until Rain was ready for a nap.

"Has her mental progress slowed down?" Aerith asked, tucking Rain into her bed, before giving the sleeping girl a kiss on the forehead and petting Daila, Rain's constant companion.

"Thankfully yes," Cloud sighed out. "Let's go somewhere else to discuss this please."

Aerith nodded, and they both moved to the sitting room on that floor, which Cloud had made using one of the unused bedrooms. When they were both comfortable on the sofas and loveseats, Cloud sighed.

"I haven't gone on many missions with you guys and only ask if you succeeded in what I sent you out to do when you get back," Cloud began. "And I'm sorry for that, but being here with Rain has let me see just how fast she is developing."

"How bad did that creep hurt her?" Aerith asked softly, her mother hen side coming out for comfort, but also to scare Cloud into spilling everything he had found out.

Cloud sighed and began talking, looking right at Aerith, or down at his hands as he reported to her. "According to the guide to new parents, other than being able to move a week or two before other babies, she hasn't shown any physical differences from a normal child, but it's her mental development that has progressed to fast. Rain can understand everything I say, even going so far as to try to repeat it. She hasn't spoken her first word yet, but she is getting close to being able to copy the sounds I make. She still can't make the sounds, but she's getting closer to actually speaking instead of using nonsensical sounds every day."

"So she is developing faster mentally and physically than other babies, but she has trouble making sounds that babies should be able to make at her age?" Aerith asked, trying to make it easier to understand.

Cloud chuckled and nodded. "Basically she might have a speech impediment, but she is too young to be able to come to that conclusion. The book said it was the average growth rate for babies, and to not be scared or worried if your child isn't developing like the book says exactly because all children develop differently, but see a doctor if the child is struggling with one of the growth marks when they reach a year old, as all children should be able to make vowel sounds and say at least mama by the time they are one."

"So we just have to keep talking around her and encouraging her to talk with us to get her back on track with the average?" Aerith asked, sinking farther into the couch she was sitting on. "Sound's easy enough. Reading books and encouraging her to read them with us should fix that."

Cloud laughed as Aerith began digging book after book all for children out of the bag she had thrown into the room when she got back earlier that day. Sure his daughter was developing differently than the average, but he wasn't worried. His friends were around to help him set things right anyway.

His thoughts changed drastically in the next two months as all the females made it their mission to make Cloud do all the improvements to Rain's speaking skills, and by the time Rain was about to turn twelve she could make vowel sounds and what sounded like mama.

**~So, imagine everything Shinra has been trying to do foiled in some hilarious way, and that's basically what all of AVALANCHE but Cloud has been doing for like ten months.~**

Cloud sighed for what seemed to be the thousandth time that day. Someone decided that a family field trip out to the nearest town was in order, but the nearest town just so happened to be one of Shinra's biggest military towns, so the only one not in some disguise to have fun was him and Rain. But he should have told them to forget about the disguises. Not a single SOLDIER or trooper were in the town that day because of something happening in the headquarters in the military encampment just outside the main gates.

So, here they were sitting at an outside table in front of a quaint and homey cafe in the middle of Kalm, waiting for their orders to come out while talking about silly things like who was making dinner that night, who was going to help clean out the Chocobo stables that evening, what they needed to buy while they were in town before they left, etc. It was really quite bizarre of an experience for Cloud as it was quite different from all the fights and battles, from staying at home taking care of Rain, or hunting down wildlife to bring home to cook and jerky. It was really a novel experience for our favorite blonde hero to be so at peace in this outdoor cafe in the middle of the biggest military encampment that the biggest evil corporation owned, at risk of being found by one of the top four SOLDIERs at any moment or for someone to blabber to the troopers that a strange group of people were eating in the middle of town. It was really nice.

"Mama," came a soft coo from Cloud's lap, and Cloud thinking nothing of it, hummed in response, until the fact that the table had gone silent had sunk in a moment later.

"What?" Cloud was sitting up straight, looking down at his bight eyed, smiling little girl sitting in his lap. Rain was smiling and looking proud of herself, so proud it made Cloud feel proud as he realized what Rain had said.

"Mama! Mama! Mama!" Rain chanted again and again, smiling and laughing.

Everyone at the table smiled and laughed along, watching Rain and Cloud with love and adoration in their eyes, their features soft and at peace in this loving moment between Cloud and Rain.

Cloud was in awe with the simple word that Rain was chanting, he was happy, Rain was calling him Mama. This was one of Cloud's happiest moments of his life and he didn't think anything could ruin it.

Well, that was until Rain pointed behind him and screamed "Dada!" as they walked through the streets back to the Highwind with all the bags and items they had bought.

Cloud spun around, along with everyone else in his group, and stopped dead. At the end of the street, looking right at them was Sephiroth, Angeal, Genesis, and Zack. When Sephiroth took the first step towards them, his eyes focused on Cloud and Rain, Cloud reacted faster than the others.

"Vincent get Cid to the ship and get it ready for take-off now," Cloud ordered quitely. "Everyone else needs to run as fast as you can. We need to leave now."

And then it was absolute chaos as Vincent grabbed Cid then vanished, the others ran faster and faster towards where the Highwind was located, and before Cloud turned his back and ran with them, he saw Zack trip in front of Sephiroth, Genesis, and Angeal causing them to all collapse into a groaning tangled mess. The topping point that had Cloud and the others cracking up later as they flew away from Kalm safely on the Highwind, was that as Cloud ran, Rain waved back at Sephiroth and called out "Bye Dada!"

What wasn't funny was how Zack, bloody and broken, showed up at the gates to Cloud's home a month later and said something bad had happened and they needed to talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed and sorry about the cliff hanger. This chapter had almost hit five thousand words before I was finished with it, and if I went into Zack's part it would take even longer to get out. So, hope you guys enjoyed it and look forward to the next chapter, which should be out hopefully before December 2019.


	4. A SOLDIER's Tale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We know the more important parts of how Cloud and Rain lived for almost a year together and some of what's happening with AVALANCHE during that time, but what about the three Generals and Zack? How have they been? What have they been up too?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this has taken so long to come out! My computer broke on me and I didn't convince my mom to let me use her laptop to post chapters till just yesterday, at which point I had to proofread the chapter I had typed up on my phone to catch all the mistakes the phones don't catch. Too tired to post it last night, I had to wait for my mom to get home from work so I could post this! Unfortunately, this is how uploading is going to go now. I have the next chapter started on my phone and when she lets me back on her laptop again I should hopefully have the next chapter ready to proofread and post, but I can't tell you all when that will be because I myself simply do not know. This story isn't being thrown aside or put on the back burners, I'm just going through technical difficulties at the moment. Hopefully when the world starts calming down and I can get a new computer uploading can finally get put on its proper schedule.
> 
> Thanks for staying with me guys! You don't know how much that means to me to have people really understanding and patient enough to wait out the tech problems. Love you all! Enjoy!

It had taken one month after Cloud ran off with the little girl for Sephiroth to finally cave into wanting to follow them to be with his daughter, one long month of Zack hinting that the girl would be raised right by Cloud, but would not have a father figure or someone who knew enhancements like he did if Sephiroth doesn’t leave Shinra to be with them, as Cloud clearly wouldn’t let the little girl back into Shinra willingly if the ones who would hurt her were still around.

If Genesis and Angeal found out earlier about Degradation during that one month then they normally would, Zack said nothing about it, but he did say he knew a doctor who would be more then willing to help them find a cure because clearly the professors couldn’t be trusted anymore since they were trying to experiment on a baby and had full intentions of taking the girl when she was older and turning her into an emotionless killer sworn to serve the man who ‘created’ her.

If that doctor refused to come to Midgar to see them and they had to come to where the doctor worked to get Angeal and Genesis a cure, well Zack celebrated in private the week before they all left. Only it didn’t go the way he thought it would. Instead of the leave during the night and leave no trace behind approach that Zack was sure Angeal and Sephiroth would do, Genesis had them all leave with a flurry of flames and cheers, as almost all of Shinra’s SOLDIERs and infantry left with them to find better lives than the one they were currently living in Shinra’s army.

Zack just sighed and rolled with it when Genesis threw his arm around his shoulder and whispered “It’s better to have the enemy weak and without an army so our beloved Saviour of the Planet has less to worry about. Relax and blow things up.”

It took almost another month for him to lead the stubborn Generals and the army to the base of the mountain the doctor lived on, and by then a lot of the provisions the army had were already running low. It was just another thing Zack had to add to his ever-growing list of things to accomplish before sending Sephiroth, Genesis, and Angeal up the mountain to see the doctor. The army followed their General’s not him.

Three months later Zack stood up on one of the ridges of the mountain and watched the construction of the Meeting Hall being finished, plans for more houses being laid out with construction for foundations starting on the ones that Sephiroth approved of. Genesis had taken to going into various towns with a small group of SOLDIERs accompanying him and helped solve monster problems or helped with fashion problems as long as it paid, all the money going into buying more supplies for the town, food for the troops, and hiring some farmers to help Angeal start growing crops and flowers in the space dedicated by Sephiroth as the more moist and nutrient-rich soil where they decided to live. Angeal had taken a shine to the local mountain wildlife, even the wildlife in the forest fell to his charms and gentle coaxing, so being attacked wasn’t an issue anymore.

Overall, Zack knew he was doing a good job keeping an eye on the three generals of Shinra’s ex-military. But he knew that wasn’t good enough. The mountain range behind him was expansive but small, and much closer to Midgar then Zack remembered. The doctor was crazy living directly south of Midgar and due east of Junon, especially since they were trying to keep off Shinra’s monitor. Being farther away would have been more beneficial. But, this was Cloud he was talking about, and Cloud would rather live closer to his enemies then away, one of the reasons Zack had decided to get them all to bunker down and live here at the base of the mountain. That and Cloud’s castle is big, but not big enough to hold the entire army comfortably, if Cloud even let them through the gate.

He looked back down to see Angeal, Genesis, and Sephiroth all watching him, each with amusement. With a laugh and a quick dash, he leapt off the ridge and into the chaos that needed to be sorted this time. They were making lots of progress, no need to slow this down now!

**~People who reread this might have noticed this, but just to clarify, Genesis and Angeal were promoted to Generals after Cloud took Rain and left. So they are all now Generals and Zack is still a second.~**

Seven months after Cloud had taken his little girl, who Zack now knew was named Rain, something became amiss with Sephiroth. At first, Zack didn’t notice anything more then Seph seemingly sleep-deprived, but just said Seph was staying up approving and changing plans to accommodate the needs of his soldiers, enhanced or not. But when he did, Zack knew he saw it before anyone. He knew from the various tics that Sephiroth started showing from past lives after Genesis and Angeal had left Shinra, and even before in some cases, that something was wrong. Sephiroth never tried to keep things from the three of them even if he had a hard time explaining what was wrong, so walking in on Sephiroth braiding and then unbraiding his hair over and over while staring out his window seemingly unaware he had entered the room, was highly concerning.

"Seph?" Zack called, his hand drifting slightly towards the hit of his sword. "You okay?"

"She keeps crying," was all Sephiroth said, not even glancing over at Zack.

Zack stopped in his tracks, his brain screeching to a halt. Sephiroth didn't get on him for the nickname, Sephiroth wasn't looking at him, Sephiroth was talking about someone Zack couldn't hear. Was Jenova near? Was she calling Sephiroth earlier than planned?

"Who keeps crying Seph?" Zack asked, moving to stand beside Sephiroth, but also out of arm's reach, you could never be too careful around Sephiroth when he was like this.

Sephiroth then turned to look at Zack, his eyes hazy as if he was completely out of it. "The girl in my dreams. The one with hair such a beautiful light golden color it's almost pure silver. The one with eyes a brighter blue than the sky, that glow brighter than the sun itself."

Zack was taken for a loop, surely that couldn't be Jenova, but at the same time, it couldn't be anyone else. But why would Jenova show herself like that to Sephiroth?

Zack reached out and grabbed Sephiroth's hands to stop the continuous braiding movements. "What is she saying?"

Sephiroth's eyes were slowly clearing up, as if he was waking from being asleep slowly. "She keeps crying, begging for help, asking to be saved. She's scared. Alone."

Zack pulled Sephiroth from the window, slowly leading him to the sofa in the middle of the room. "Do you know her name Seph?"

Sephiroth's brow scrunched in thought, or maybe he was trying to see something better, something beyond Zack and the room. "No, she's not alone. Someone is there with her. Fear, so much fear. She knows that person will hurt her. She's in danger."

Zack closed his eyes and tried to imagine what Sephiroth was seeing but couldn't piece the parts together. He opened his eyes to see Sephiroth's eyes were clear and sharp, he was no longer in that in-between state. "Seph?"

"What are you doing, Zackary?" And the moment was over. Sephiroth was no longer being called by the unknown female.

Zack jumped to his feet, pulling his hands from Sephiroth's in the process, throwing his hands behind his head and looking out the window to see Sephiroth's reflection. "You went weird on me man. Talking about hearing and seeing things that don't exist."

Zack watched as Sephiroth's eyes darkened slightly in the window, how Sephiroth clenched his hands and then released them.

"I wasn't aware I was doing anything but resting my eyes for a few moments." Came the reply Zack knew was a lie.

Zack pondered his options for a few minutes, just watching Sephiroth come to terms with things, even reaching up to grip the pale pink materia he kept on a chain around his neck. With a nod, Zack swung around and learned towards Sephiroth as if about to share a secret, halfway across the room. "I hear voices too sometimes. See things that never happened. Maybe you're seeing future events?"

Sephiroth looked up at Zack with clear confusion in his eyes. "I what?" Clearly this wasn't something Sephiroth even considered.

"Or maybe you're just going crazy. I don't know. I'm not a doctor. But the next time you start feeling like you're being mentally dragged away, call for me or Gen. We might not be able to ground you, but we will be able to help you sort through it better."

Zack started walking towards the door. He knew Seph was still watching him but he couldn't be cool and confident anymore.

"A lot of shit has happened since we left Shinra and destroyed a large part of the military and SOLDIER holdings. It's taking a toll on us to keep going and providing for the ones that followed us from Shinra. Please, Seph. Don't try to do this on your own. I don't care if you have to wake me up in the middle of the damn night to talk about it, because I know you remember it. Don't keep this to yourself. It only results in pain."

And with that Zack was back to being that cheerful and confident SOLDIER everyone knew as he walked out of the small house and into the chaos of the repairs and building of the small mountain town they were building. Zack was suddenly extremely thankful, though he would never say this aloud, that the town they were calling home now was literally a days run from Cloud's mountain castle. Made his life much easier, just in case Sephiroth was being called by a new entity they knew nothing about.

"Now to find Gen and let him know."

**~Zack is a precious boy and no one can convince me otherwise.~**

Sephiroth knew he had fallen asleep in his bed that night after Zack and Genesis insisted one of them stay with him at all times, with Zack in the chair in the corner, so he was almost convinced that Zack had somehow managed to move him into the woods while he was sleeping. Except he could still feel the blankets and mattress while he was standing in a snow-covered forest pathway, and it was midsummer when he had fallen asleep so there shouldn’t have been any snow. Looking around revealed nothing to him other than he was pretty deep in the winter woods and nothing was around to make marks in the snow. Even standing ankle-deep in the snow and moving his right foot back and forth on the ground didn't disturb it.

"So I'm back here again?" He muttered aloud, looking back around again. "Where is she then?"

"Get back down here now!" Came a shout from a voice so painfully familiar. Sephiroth's head whipped towards the sound in time to see Hojo, older with a head of gray hair and skin sickly pale, come stumbling from behind a thicker cluster of trees, black lifeless eyes glaring death towards the sky.

Sephiroth looked up to follow Hojo's eyes and felt an unexplainable surge of pride fill him. In the sky just above the trees was the girl he was looking for, two beautiful golden-white angel wings protruding from her back. He could tell instantly that she had escaped Hojo and was trying to lose him in the woods by not leaving anything for him to follow, but the gunshot that rang out reminded Seph that Hojo was a persistent bastard that did anything to keep his experiments.

Sephiroth was angry, but he knew he couldn't do anything about what was happening, he had tried before in the labs and nothing happened. Just like with the snow, he went through everything.

He watched as the girl trembled, struggling to keep herself in the air as one of her wings started turning red. Hojo shot again, and she cried out in pain as the bullet cut into her back where the wings were attached. He knew he couldn't do anything to help her, but that didn't stop him from running to her and trying to catch her from the sky.

Except something did happen, something Seph didn't know if he was the cause or if she was the cause. She had stopped falling when he wrapped his arms around her, cradling her close to his chest. He carefully crouched to the ground and held her tightly, if he was influencing this then Hojo wouldn't get her back easily.

"You are quite a handful girl," the monster in human skin growled as he limped closer. "You still have your mother's fighting spirit apparently. Along with your father's genius mind to pick up on so much as fast as you do."

The girl whimpered, her hand gripping Sephiroth's coat tightly. "Just leave me alone. I didn't do anything to you."

Hojo smirked, leaning down to grab the girl, laughing as if she had just told a joke. "You are the daughter of my greatest experiments, you belong to me."

"She doesn't belong to you," Sephiroth hissed, standing up, breathing a mental sigh of relief as the girl stayed in his arms. "And she never will."

He saw the confusion in Hojo's eyes before it turned into an obsessed interest, just like when he had first summoned his sword from nowhere. He had enough of the monster eyeing her like she was an object to be poked and prodded, so he summoned his own wing and took to the skies himself, watching as a single black wing drifted down and landed in Hojo's eyes, making Hojo miss the shot he had tried to take at them.

Sephiroth was gone with the girl in his arms before Hojo even reached up to remove the feather. And with a simple thought, he heard Hojo scream in rage as the black feather turned to nothing in his hands.

Sephiroth flew until he saw a cliff overlooking a seaside port town, or what was left of the port town anyway. It looked as if the town had been hit with multiple tsunamis and other natural disasters that had turned it into an abandoned waterside ruin. The events that took the life from the town must have happened decades ago for plant life was slowly taking over the ruins and the land the town had taken from it.

A deep groan came from his right, but a quick glance showed no one there. ‘It’s most likely Zack shifting to get more comfortable,’ He thought quickly. ‘As long as he doesn’t try to wake me before I help her.’ A soft whimper from his arms brought his attention back to the girl he was carefully cradling.

“Careful little bird,” Sephiroth found himself saying. “Your wings are injured. I need to find the proper tools to help you heal. Don’t move too much.”

Getting a slight nod from the girl, he moved to set her gently against a large rock at the top of the cliff, only for her to grip tighter to his coat and prevent him from setting her down without laying on top of her.

“...”

Sephiroth blinked, shook his head and then picked her up again, moving to carefully glide down the cliff. She had muttered so softly he hadn’t managed to make out what she said, but the fact that she was relaxing while still in his arms was telling enough, she hadn’t wanted to be alone, even if she could still see him and him her.

Unless she couldn’t see him and was scared that when he let go of her he would cease to exist.

He pushed that thought out of his head quickly, focusing more on finding a building that looked like a clinic or general store, though it was harder to distinguish the buildings then he thought, too much damage and not enough left in place of walls, roofs, and signs. Finally after searching much longer then he should have, he found a more intact building hidden in the trees and behind the rocks, the elements hadn’t caused the structure to fall apart entirely yet and he was thankful. Even more thankful when the building was a small abandoned clinic, and he found the means to get water, sterilize it and the tools he needed, and the means to bandage the wounds the girl had sustained.

It was a painful process pulling bullets out of a person’s body, but the girl didn’t scream or cry. No, she just laid on her stomach and let him tend to her wounds, giving him a small smile before she passed out on the bed.

Sephiroth sighed and ran his hand over his head through his hair. The girl was safe now, far enough away that Hojo wouldn’t find her before she healed and moved on. He found himself looking down at his hands covered in her blood, the bullet in her back had been deeper than he thought, and knew he had to clean his hands. Groaning as he stood, Sephiroth moved to the dirty mirror and wiped some of the grim away so he could see just how much blood he had gotten in his hair, only to freeze. Looking back at him in the mirror was what Sephiroth knew he would look like when he started hitting his elder years, but his eyes were just as vibrant as ever, his body still muscled, lean, and strong, his wing still as dark as the moon and starless skies, only the fact that he had wrinkles and some of his hair was turning white at the roots instead of silver let on how old he really was.

It was that image that swam before his eyes as he jolted awake in bed, eyes staring at Zack even if his mind hadn’t caught up to what was before him.

“Seph?” Zack asked quietly, and then his brain kicked in to take in the fact that Zack had his hand on the handle of the sword on his back, he had even started to pull it off the harness.

“Your right,” He whispered. “I’m seeing the future. I’m seeing the girl's future as an observer. But I’m also there with her. I saved her.”

Zack could only smile and relax his stance. “Of course you’d save her, you're a great man, you’d never let anyone suffer if you could do something about it.”

As Sephiroth got ready for his day and followed Zack out of the house, he couldn’t shake the feeling as if Zack was lying to his face with a smile. He didn’t feel like a good person, the war proved that, but if Zack could see something he couldn’t, well, he’d just trust in the young SOLDIERs perception. No need to make things harder on himself by adding unnecessary stress.

**~Sephiroth will explain everything in better detail later, but enjoy the mystery around his 'visions'.~**

The trip to Kalm was a quiet and peaceful one, even though Zack knew that Genesis and Sephiroth were radiating anger and were barely holding back the curses and remarks that they wanted to make to him. He had talked to Angeal about needing to get some new supplies from Kalm for the still-unnamed town they had almost finished building and had easily convinced the man to come with him. Genesis had followed when Zack had flashed the copy of Loveless that Genesis always carried with him and said he’d burn it if Gen didn’t come. Sephiroth was the more troublesome one, the only things he tended to actually care about was a pale pink materia that he kept on a chain around his neck that he wouldn’t speak about, the Masamune, and his personal living space, and Zack had no way of holding those hostage to make Sephiroth follow him unless he wanted to die. So with great care and wording, Zack had convinced Angeal that going to Kalm would be a great distraction for Sephiroth’s overworked mind, and Angeal jumped on it to drag Seph with them, even Genesis joined in to drag the Silver General from his troops and town.

Zack was never so happy that they were enhanced as he did that day, because he had heard through the grapevine and his friends, that every SOLDIER and trooper still stationed in Kalm, the only Shinra military stronghold left, were going to be hidden away in the HQ outside the walls to listen for new directions and orders from Shinra. The same grapevine told him that Shinra was still withholding the information that the three Firsts had deserted with almost every military personnel in the entire order that had been at the tower that night. Which meant that Spike wouldn’t know that they had left. He only hoped his timing was good enough to catch Spike and his group unaware and still in Kalm for business.

“So we're all being forced out to gather supplies that the two of you could have gotten just fine on your own?” Genesis snapped as they walked into Kalm at long last.

Zack sighed and kept moving forward, his eyes on the sky. They did have things to grab, but he also needed the extra legs to catch Spike and his group if they found them. But he couldn’t tell them that, they would be insistent that the supplies were not important and only catching Spike was important. A quick prayer to the Goddess that his plan actually worked and then Zack was bouncing around and dragging Angeal in different directions and then into different stores.

Eventually, the three SOLDIERs had forgotten their ire with him and were fully enjoying themselves browsing the hardware stores for more supplies in making the furniture and houses, the art stores for new paint choices, fabric stores for new cloths and machines to make new military outfits, casual wear, blankets, pillows, etc. Zack had managed to make a deal with all the stores, they bought what they needed today and brought back people to help them move it all before the week was over.

Zack was having so much fun on this outing with his friends and Generals that he had forgotten that Cloud was supposed to be in town that day, only remembering a second too late as a very young voice rang out saying “Dada!” All four heads wiped around to look at the group of people, two very clearly Cloud and his daughter, the others looking for all the world like very misplaced tourists that were supposed to be in the middle of making a trip to the Gold Saucer by the way of the Corel Desert.

Cloud spun around to face all of them, Zack saw him lean slightly closer to the others he was with and whisper something he couldn’t make out. When Seph took a step forward the group before them scattered, two of them turning into a red daze and then disappearing quickly into nothingness. Zack caught on quickly, much quicker than his friends, and tried to run after them, only to find his face meeting the ground and then the impact of three more bodies on top of him. A quick shift of his legs told him he tripped up someone who had tried to move into the same space of him, and the softer call of “Bye Dada” was all they got before the group disappeared from view altogether, the four SOLDIERs still a tangle on the ground.

Zack let his head fall back to the ground as the others started moving to disentangle themselves from on top of him. He wasn’t looking forward to the questions and the search that would follow, Gaia knew Seph was obsessed with them enough, but seeing them before he was ready to was enough of a headache that Zack didn’t need. Unless he hit his head harder than he thought on the ground and this was just the normal head pains of being crushed under almost six hundred pounds of pure muscle.

Nonetheless, this was going to continue being a painful experience.

**~Much love and internet cookies for anyone who can guess who Zack's grapevine is.~**

As Zack ran all he could think was everything was going downhill faster than President Shinra fell asleep in his old age. No one had expected the attack that had set everything on fire, nor for the specialized troops that had ripped though everyone effortlessly as if they were nothing more than butter. Angeal, Genesis, and Sephiroth were the only ones to actually hold their own against the attackers, but Zack had been kicked aside easily, only still alive because Sephiroth had the longer sword in the battle with the attackers. Zack didn’t hesitate to run, he knew he had to get help and the only help was on the mountain hopefully home and willing to help.

Zack didn’t stop for anything, leaping and climbing like his life depended on it, and with the sound of bullets and explosions following him he highly doubted that he was alone on the mountain. He pushed himself harder, ignoring the burning pain as he ran faster than his body could handle, ignoring each cut and scrape from the few trees and the unstable mountain rocks, even ignoring the pain as a few bullets buried themselves into his arms and sides, he could handle it. He was a SOLDIER. When he saw the mist curling around the mountains hiding what was inside the misty area, he just about cried out in joy. And with a final burst of energy, he pushed through the misty barrier and just about slammed face-first into the first tree before him.

Zack slowed down, his head was starting to fill fuzzy, his body wet and heavy. He was losing blood quickly if the loss was already getting to him. Zack shook his head and kept moving, he needed to reach Cloud and tell him everything before he passed out. The others didn’t know about this place yet so they wouldn’t know how to reach him or even look for him here and he couldn’t even think about if they had killed his friends while he was making the mad dash up the mountain.

Finally, the gate came into view and Zack tried to open it, and when it proved too much for his quickly weakening body, he slammed his fist into the gate as hard and as fast as he could, only stopping when Cloud was close enough to see him in the dark night. With a trembling hand, he reached out back towards the base of the mountain and coughed.

“Cloud we need help,” another coughing fit had Zack almost falling to his knees, the only thing keeping him up was Cloud’s grip on him, his eyes wide with fear and concern. “Attacked. Too strong. Seph, Gen, and Ang were the only ones still fighting when I ran.”

“Where?” came the only reply Zack knew he was going to get. Cloud had picked him up and was walking towards the castle he had come from. When had he collapsed?

“Bottom of the mountain by the river in the direction of Midgar,” Zack reported dutifully before the world went black.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things happen! If they are good or bad is yet to be determined. Enjoy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to update. I had half the chapter written and then I just froze and couldn't finish it. I tried to go back and see what was wrong because it wasn't writers block, but I couldn't find anything wrong with the chapter I had started writing. Two days later and I come back to it and reread what I have written and I finally found the problem! The plot when in the opposite direction from what I wanted but the events were there, just a few tweaks and some correction on how things played out and the rest of the chapter flowed from my hands and now we have the chapter ready to read and for you all to enjoy!

Cloud ran as fast as he could down the dark mountain path, his blade singing through the air and cutting through the enemy troops on his mountain. He was a golden blur for how fast he was moving, but he always found himself having to stop to jump out of the way of a blade or block bullets from one side or another. His foes either had great prediction, or they were enhanced and with next-level equipment. That didn’t stop him from killing them all though.

He didn’t recognize the outfits they were wearing or the symbol they had on their chest, didn’t even care to stop and take a closer look at the men attacking him, all he saw was the bastards that had chased and hurt his friend and he wanted them dead. By the time he reached the base of the mountain, he was covered head to toe in the blood of his foes.

Though what he saw when he reached the final ledge was enough to bring him to a stop. A small town had sprung up at the base of the mountain, but it had been set on fire and was burning to the ground. Hordes of the same enemies that had attacked him were surrounding four men, all covered in ash and blood. A quick scan of the burning town showed smaller skirmishes that were quickly being settled in the enemy armies' favor. Cloud started moving again, odds were not in favor of the four, no matter who they were. It was still dark out, dawn was over an hour away, but Cloud had a feeling that there were so many more foes than he could see. Cloud blanked his mind, placed himself into the mind of a battle-hardened warrior, and then leapt off the ledge into the masses below him, his blade swinging before he even hit the ground, bodies falling around him, blood falling and making the already slippery mud even harder to fight in, but Cloud didn’t notice any of it. These bastards hurt Zack and his friends, none were going to escape his wrath.

Cloud fought like death, the enemies he had jumped into had scrambled in shock and they were the first to fall to his blade, the next wave fell, then the next, until he had cleared half of his side of the battlefield, but the enemies seemed to always replenish and keep coming from the sides. He didn’t bother looking at the three behind him, he could feel the heat of the Firagas being cast, the sound of a blade deflecting bullets, and the sound of bodies hitting the ground. They were doing fine.

_ ‘Kill all of them, Golden One,’ _ a voice rang through his head, soft and melodic, tempting Cloud into listening. The voice made him squeeze his eyes shut and try to block it out.  _ ‘Kill everyone who dared hurt our family.’ _

Cloud opened his eyes again, something inside him pleased to see that the army had moved to try and kill him while he was distracted. It was that foreign and unknown pleasure that let him smile, for his blue eyes to sparkle with pure gold flecks with the thrill of the kill, for him to fall into the rhythm of killing the men before him. Cloud could hear their screams as if they were farther away, saw the unknown uniforms of the men who hurt Zack blurring around the edges, and he saw unusual darkness slowly creeping into his sight.

_ ‘These men deserve to die, _ ’ The voice called out again, stronger and closer this time.  _ ‘Allow me to take over and show them what it means to hurt our beloved family.’ _

Then Cloud felt himself slipping into the darkness, his body never stopping in the deadly dance he had weaved, something inside him made him feel alive while slaughtering the army before him, in saving the few SOLDIERs and Shinra troops still alive in the town.

Cloud tried to remind himself that he was stronger than Jenova and Sephiroth when they were actively trying to take over his mind, that he could stay in charge of his own body and not let them win, but he kept falling deeper into the darkness taking over his mind.

_ ‘You think of me like that parasite?’ _ Came the voice again, followed by a laugh so male and so very different then Cloud had ever heard.  _ ‘Sleep, Golden One. When you wake I will have cleaned up the nuisances that have hurt our family.’ _

Before Cloud could fight harder, he found himself falling into the darkness fully, his eyes meeting the pure brilliant gold pair as someone who looked like Cloud in everything but eyes passed him and took over his body, forcing Cloud into slumber at the back of his mind.

******

Sephiroth panted as he struggled to keep up with the ever-increasing army. It seemed like for every one he cut down, five more took their comrades place. Even Genesis was running low on fumes, having used materia to save injured SOLDIERs and troopers, to burn the enemy, to freeze them, call upon Summons, and heal them when a bullet slipped past the defense or a sword landed a hit they couldn’t afford.

He couldn’t blame them though, they must have been fighting for at least a solid day now with no rest or chance to recuperate. They had been attacked an hour before dusk and Sepiroth knew he saw the sunset and rise while fighting, and the fact that the sky was dark again, with the sky slowly lighting up again, let him know that they had been fighting much longer than any of his men should have. Not even in the Wutai war had he been forced to fight for days on end without rest, and he was the strongest of them all.

But the only thing they had to show for all their efforts were the dead bodies on the ground, and though those had to be somewhere in the hundreds by now, the lifestream taking the enemies bodies just a little slower then they were killed, they were losing ground to the seemingly endless army attacking them. They were blocked in the town they had been trying to build, and every time Sephiroth cut down more enemies and saw one of his men, he also saw those that had taken longer to be taken fading into the lifestream like all creatures eventually did. So many needless deaths all because these bastards never stopped coming in hordes too big for the men to handle.

“Seph,” Angeal called out from behind him. “Someone is cutting down part of the army between us and the mountain quickly. I don’t know who it is, but if we can get closer to the mountain, we can use it as leverage to get some kind of advantage over the enemies!”

Sephiroth glanced behind him to take stock of how Genesis, Angeal, and the SOLDIER second class, Kunsel were holding on. If they should push to the mountains or try to hold their ground and get to somewhere else. One look at Genesis was all Sephiroth needed to make the decision for them. Genesis, weakened by constant nonstop materia use and the physical strength needed to lift his sword in his constantly weakening body, was only standing because Kunsel was holding him up, but Kunsel wasn’t faring any better then Genesis was. They needed the retreat, the hope for a place to keep the army from them long enough for them both to recover and join the fight, if not retreat into the mountains and try to escape the endless army around them.

“We're moving to the mountain,” Sephiroth called out, trying to make his voice carry enough for any survivors to hear, while also telling the enemy their plans, a risky but necessary move. “Proceed to the mountains and protect those unable to fight!”

Sephiroth heard Angeal sigh in relief, then the groan from Genesis as he and Kunsel moved to follow Angeal, who had taken point towards the mountain, Seph following behind them, both of them still fighting the never-ending army that seemed to swarm them.

Sephiroth and Angeal worked hard to cut open a path to the mountain, all while protecting the two SOLDIERs unable to fight because of exhaustion. They were starting to get too overwhelmed, where Sephiroth found himself having to fight with Genesis’ rapier along with his Masamune to keep up with all the swords and bullets flying by his head and swinging at his vitals, when all the enemies around them fell to the ground dead and standing in their place was a blood-covered male with bright livid golden eyes dragging along two overly large swords.

“Zack’s friends?” The male asked, his face breaking into a smile, his arms twitching, the swords moving with each erratic twitch, as if he was trying to hold himself back from killing them.

“Yes,” Sephiroth said, gripping both swords tighter in his hands, ready to defend against the male if he attacked them. The almost unheard sound of leather creaking was the only indication that Angeal was also ready to fight this man between them and the mountain. “The four of us are Zack’s friends, as are everyone else wearing attire like this.”

The male smiled and rocked back on his heels, his eyes showing patient amusement, as if Sephiroth had just told him something he already knew. He looked back at the army standing back from them, by orders or fear Sephiroth didn’t know, though with the bodies on the ground wearing the unknown enemies attire, Sephiroth had to guess it was fear keeping them back. “Follow me.”

Sephiroth shared a look with Angeal and silently asked if they should follow the man before them. He was covered in blood and this could be a trap, but he had cut down too many of the other side for him to be one of their allies. Sephiroth could only hope that this man was here to help them and not kill them.

After looking the others over, Angeal met Sephiroth’s eyes again and firmly nodded.

They followed the blood-covered fighter to a mountain pass and up to a ledge overlooking the entire town, the man effortlessly bouncing between leading them and killing everyone who got within ten feet of them. Silently Sephiroth was relieved to no longer be fighting, his entire body was sore and his muscles hurt. Then Sephiroth felt his stomach drop to his feet and his heart stop beating.

In the light of the rising sun, Sepiroth finally saw the scale of the army they were facing. The army was massive, so much bigger than he even thought, he could see them extending at least two miles beyond the town in a black blob, and that was after they had spent at least a day fighting them and cutting down their numbers. The sight was heart-shattering and the soft whine from Genesis and Kunsel as they fell to the ground, along with the even softer curse from Angeal let him know that even his men were coming to realize the same thing as him.

“We won't be able to win,” Sephiroth muttered, he was already feeling despair. “We can’t fight an army like this.”

The man looked at Sephiroth and frowned, his head tilted slightly to the side, before he started giggling. “I can eliminate them all for you, but you have to make a deal with me.”

Sephiroth looked at the male, then the army gathering into the town and destroying what they had worked so hard for, destroying the life they were trying to build outside Shinra. He turned back to look at the male, covered in blood and eyes a vivid golden color, his gaze psychotic and singing with bloodlust, but Sephiroth also saw something else in those eyes. The male had that look in his eyes only when looking at Sephiroth, and something in Sephiroth screamed that he knew this man, but at the same time didn’t. “What’s the deal?”

“Seph you can’t-” Angeal started, only to fall silent when the man turned his eyes to stare him down. The eyes had turned cold, his gaze piercing Angeal as if his gaze could kill.

“You become mine,” The male said, turning back to look him in the eyes, the gaze softening back into that unknown emotion. “You become my lover and my mate, and I will kill everything that has destroyed what is rightfully yours and bring all of your men back to life.”

Angeal sputtered behind him as Sephiroth ran the deal through his head. “Seph the guy is crazy. If we couldn’t stop them on our own then why would he be able to?”

Sephiroth knew for a fact that the man had single-handedly cleared part of the army and got them to the mountain in half the time it had taken to take thirty steps on their own. Something inside him wanted to listen to the man, to take his deal, that it would be okay and they would all be safe once again, but another half that Sephiroth had never heard before sang of betrayal and how the man would kill them all and not save anyone. His hand grasped the pale pink materia he had kept around his neck, and willed his mind to think clearly.

_ ‘You should accept his offer, _ ’ a soft voice rang out, and Sephiroth knew it was in his head.  _ ‘He would never hurt you unless you asked to be hurt or threatened the rest of his family and actually followed through with killing them. He is the only one able to save your people. When he comes back around again, accept his offer. It’s an eternal deal on both ends. He will protect you and all you love, and all you have to do in return is love him sexually, physically, and mentally.’ _

Sephiroth knew it was advice to him, even if it was from a female in the future. His mind made up, he opened his eyes to see the male eyeing the materia he was grasping with curiosity.

“It’s a deal,” Sephiroth stated, gaining the male's attention back to himself and not his materia. “I will be your lover if you kill them all and save my men.”

Even with Angeal’s weakly sputtered protest, Sephiroth knew in that moment that he would never have said no. This was a small price to pay for the men loyal to him, to give them the lives they wanted with their families and to return their lives back to the peace they had worked so hard to achieve.

The man smiled brightly, his blood-covered features twisting with the insanity in his eyes as he twirled his swords around and turned them into one giant sword almost like Angeal’s buster sword. “I can have them all wiped out faster than you can say your name.” And with a final twirl of the sword, the unknown man was facing the army slowly advancing on them, looking out over the expanse of land below them, his sword planted tip first into the ground. The wind whipped through the land, making the few scattered trees bend under the pressure, Sephiroth’s hair flying around and almost choking him, and then the air stilled and the sudden surge of power caused Angeal and Sephiroth both to fall to their knees. When Sephiroth finally managed to lift his head and look at the male, he saw the figure of a man he had left Shinra to find. The wind had either been so strong it had blown all the blood off of him, which Sephiroth distinctly remembered was not really possible, or the man had used the blood covering him for something before him, but the man standing at the epicenter of all the power pinning him and the others in place, was devoid of all blood and was glowing with a pure gold light, enhanced by the sun rising before him.

The world had gone quiet, nothing moved, they didn’t dare to breathe. The ground below the man’s feet was turning blood red, pooling around him and running over the edge of the cliff. Then the crack as loud as lightning rang out and following it, was a summon Sephiroth had never seen before. One after the other, knights appeared to slash down the enemies of their summoner, each one with a unique ability or weapon, each one devastating the army below them. Sephiroth watched in utter awe at the carnage they brought to the army and absolutely no one of the opposing army was alive by the time the man finally opened his eyes and held out his hand, a red summon materia materializing in his outstretched palm.

Sephiroth and Angeal looked on with awe as what seemed to be dozens of Phoenixes emerged from the sky and rained down feathers, each one hitting one of his fallen men and the ground where his men had already disappeared to the lifestream, while not a single feather hit one of the enemies. They watched in awe as the men started waking up and moving, as the men they saw go to the lifestream returned in small bursts of green, until every person they lived within the town was back and quickly putting themselves to work putting out the remaining fires and tending to the wounded who hadn’t died to the armies attack.

It was awe-inspiring and terrifying.

“Holy hell…” Angeal whispered. “Who the hell are you?”

The man laughed and looked back at Angeal, his eyes dancing with amusement. “I am the Master of the Summons according to the older books from the times of the Ancients, but I have no set name. Don’t worry, no one is ever going to be able to call forth summons to devastate on such a large scale like me. But you can refer to me as you would my host.”

Sephiroth felt a cold chill settle on him, and he realized he was afraid. For the first time in a long time, Sephiroth was terrified of someone other than Hojo. And this person had only helped him and hadn’t stabbed him or broken some part of his body to see how fast he healed the wounds.

“Now you have to keep your end of the deal.” The man said, before turning and walking up into the mountains. ‘Cloud.’ Sephiroth’s mind finally supplied him. “I will be back for you, dearest Sephiroth. But for now, I have an injured family member to take care of.”

Sephiroth and Angeal watched where Cloud had disappeared to, each one fearing that he would change his mind and return to drag Sephiroth off.

“We need to get back down to the town,” Angeal said softly, breaking the silence that had settled over them. “Figure out who was too far gone to save and how bad everyone else is.”

Sephiroth nodded numbly, following Angeal, who held Genesis bridal style. Sephiroth shifted so he had the second curled in his arms, to make the trip back down easier on both the exhausted men.

‘The hell have I done?’ Seph thought numbly, another cold chill falling over him.

******

“What the hell did I do?!” Was the panicked cry Zack awoke to. “I didn’t mean for this to happen! Why won’t you get out of my head already?!”

Blinking his eyes open and looking around, Zack was greeted with the sight of a highly distressed and pacing blond chocobo.

“Spike?” He managed to croak out, his throat incredibly dry.

Cloud’s head whipped to face him so fast Zack was sure he had whiplash, before dashing out of the room only to return with a glass of water and a bottle of pills. Throwing the pills on the dresser he had been pacing in front of, Cloud moved over to Zack and helped him sit up and drink the water in the glass.

“How are you feeling, Zack?” Cloud asked softly, looking him over for any signs of injury.

“I feel like I got hit by an airship,” Zack groaned out. “But I’m slowly feeling better, so my muscles must still feel sore.”

“Good,” Cloud sighed out. “I was worried when you hadn’t woken for a week, but I guess you're just taking the slow recovery option.”

Zack choked on air. “A week?! What happened to the town?! To my friends?!”

“I helped them all,” Cloud said, his head tilted, a hint of something wrong in his eyes. “I saved all your friends by becoming a puppet again.”

“Becoming a puppet?” Zack asked, searching Cloud’s eyes for answers. His bright blue eyes had gained golden specks in them, and looked as if someone else was watching the world through them as well. “What the hell happened?”

Cloud sighed and stood, moving to start pacing again, his eyes shooting to the bottle of pills on the dresser than to Zack again. “Contrary to what a lot of people believe, I do not enjoy killing people and I never will. I despise taking others' lives, for even having the power to decide if that person is going to die by my hand or later by something else. That being said, something in me stirred alive when you passed out, something I have always felt under my skin since I was born in this timeline. I just never tried to touch it, to bother it. And when I left Nibelheim, the pressure it was exerting on me finally faded into almost nothing, in fact, it basically slipped my mind that something was wrong with me. I just assumed it was Jenova reaching out to me since Sephiroth wasn’t around, since it is entirely possible that Gaia forgot to ‘clean’ me before sending me back. Which she did, since at the age of ten I was already showing clear signs of being Mako enhanced and by the time I reached the SOLDIER exams, I could probably wipe the floor with you easily, but get my ass kicked by Angeal without him even trying.”

Zack blinked in shock, his brain lazily telling him that Cloud was nervous as all hell and he was rambling again because his mind was racing and he was starting to panic.

Cloud looked back at Zack, the raw fear in his eyes had almost hidden the wrongness of Cloud’s eyes. “I saw what that thing did, heard what it said, and I remember what it felt as it ripped into the army attacking your little town. When it finally let me have control again, I spent hours hurling and sobbing, which is how Tifa and Aerith found me when they returned with Rain around noon the same day it single-handedly exterminated the entire army that had attacked you all.”

Zack, against what his body was telling him, stood up with a harsh reality check that even healed he still hurt like a bitch. He knew Cloud was still talking, but he couldn’t stand it anymore, couldn’t stand to hear the way he kept hearing another voice just under Cloud’s when he focused on it, couldn’t stand the way Cloud’s eyes didn’t look like the bright blues of his best friend.

When Cloud realized Zack wasn’t in bed anymore, he had already been wrapped in Zack's strong arms with his head pressed against Zack’s shoulder. Cloud closed his mouth and pulled away a bit from Zack’s shoulder, to pull broken fabric strands from his mouth, then placed his head back on Zack’s shoulder, his own arms moving to hug Zack back.

When Zack finally let Cloud shift away from him, it wasn’t far and Cloud was instantly back in Zack’s arms as Zack dragged them both into the bed he had woken up in. Cloud didn’t fight him, and the silent shakes let Zack know just how badly Cloud was shaken by whatever happened while he was out. But the best thing to do with Cloud was to let him open up to you when he was ready and to just hold him and comfort him until he was.

Zack didn’t know how long they laid there, Cloud silently crying in his arms until exhaustion dragged him into a dreamless slumber, but it was long enough for Aerith to walk into the room carrying a tray with food.

“Dinner,” Aerith explained, placing the food on the dresser. She eyed the bottle of pills on the dresser with hate, before turning around and moving to sit beside Zack’s head on the bed, her hand falling to stroke Cloud’s hair while he slept, her eyes watching them both softly. “Make sure you both eat, and if you’re still hungry I’ll be more than happy to make you both more food.”

“Thanks, Aer,” Zack responded, he tightened his grip on Cloud slightly before relaxing again. “Do you know what happened?”

Aerith sighed, her eyes turning sad. “I do, and I might as well tell you everything I learned when I went down to the town to heal Genesis and Angeal. Cloud can fill in missing details on what happened when he wakes up. But from what I learned, Angeal and Sephiroth were the only two fighting when Cloud showed up. Of course, they didn’t know it was him since he was covered in blood and his eyes were pure gold in color.”

Aerith glanced back at the pill bottle on the dresser next to the food. “He cut down the army attacking them with his blade split and formed into the two largest combinations he has, all while laughing and smiling like the fight was just entertainment, that the men he was killing were nothing more than toys he was breaking for fun. When he got them to a cliff overlooking the town, Sephiroth admitted to feeling despair and hopelessness when he saw the mass numbers of the army that never stopped attacking them, of course, the amount was who was left after the fighting had gone on for so very long and then Cloud going insane in the town.”

“Angeal asked who he was, meaning it in a ‘what the hell are you’ way and Angeal and Sephiroth both agree that Cloud called himself the Master of The Summons, after performing a feat that should be impossible. All to fulfill his side of the deal he had struck with Sephiroth. They wouldn’t tell me what Sephiroth’s side of the deal was, but apparently, Cloud’s part was to completely wipe the army off of Gaia and bring all of Sephiroth’s men back to life.”

“Even if Cloud could beat Seph with his eyes closed,” Zack started, looking right into Aerith’s eyes, pinning her in place with his gaze alone. “He never would have been able to kill the entire opposing army and bring all of the men who died back to life. It would take too long.”

“But he did it,” Aerith whispered, her head lowering, her eyes locked with Zack’s. “He summoned the Knights of the Round to kill the entire army, but their radius of attack couldn’t reach as far as they did. Then he materialized a Phoenix summon materia from nothing and called dozens of Phoenixes to come from the sky and revive every single person who died during that battle, something Phoenixes shouldn’t be able to do.”

“Sorry to interrupt your private time,” Came the cold voice from the doorway, making both Aerith and Zack snap towards the sudden voice. Leaning against the doorway, red cloak wrapped around his body, red eyes watching them, was Vincent. “But what you described is possible to do with the summons. But Chaos only knows one person, rather one entity that has ever managed to pull that kind of power from the summons without burning themselves to ashes.”

“Who?” Aerith asked softly, her voice trembling slightly. Zack couldn’t tell if it was because she was still recovering from Vincent’s sudden appearance or from the knowledge that summons could be used in such a destructive and really broken way.

“Chaos only knows his title, as he never gave his name to anyone and was for all intents and purposes an orphan without a home and just wandered the land,” Vincent began, eyes moving to watch Cloud. “He became so powerful that he broke the cycle of life and death and turned himself into an immortal demon king. He was worshipped and revered by the Ancients, he was considered the closest thing to a god, and they were scared of him. Chaos was wandering Gaia at this time as was the Goddess Minerva, and through careful planning and catching him off guard, they both managed to seal the man away in Gaia’s core, or in the center of the lifestream where no one could touch him. Before Minerva put the final seal in place, she called him her son, and told him she was sorry he had to be locked away for eternity.”

Vincent looked at Zack and Aerith, somehow managing to look them both dead in the eyes at the same time as he said his final piece and left the room, leaving them both reeling with what he had told them.

“His full title is Demon King Strife, Master of the Summons, and the Lost God of the Ancients.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud has a talk inside his mind, Zack has a few problems he's trying to solve on his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a bit to write. I kinda kept messing up on Zacks part, mostly because the attitude doesn't fit the happy go lucky man he is.
> 
> As always enjoy the chapter and let me know in the comments how I'm doing! I love hearing/reading comments and I make a habit to always respond to every comment! Love you all! Enjoy!

With a flurry of colors and lights, Cloud found himself somewhere he didn’t know. The horizon was an endless white like the lifestream, but when he looked up all he could see was the endless green swirls and shifts of the lifestream above him. So either he fell through the lifestream without noticing it, or he was being called by someone in the lifestream.

_ ‘You are a smart one, Golden One,’ _ a voice rang from behind Cloud.  _ ‘Much more beautiful than I remember myself being.’ _

Cloud turned around quickly, hand reaching for his blade, which was, of course, absent.

_ ‘You need to relax a bit,’ _ the voice rang out again, chuckling.  _ ‘Come to me. I wish to show you something. Just keep following the path before you.’ _

Cloud was about to ask what path, since all he saw was the endless white, when the white shifted and gave way for a crystal forest as far as he could see. The path he was supposed to follow was large stepping stones placed lovingly on the forest floor.

This screamed trap.

Cloud started down the path anyway. Trap or not, Cloud was here because of the owner of the voice, and he had a feeling that he wouldn’t be getting out of this without giving in to what the person at the end of this path wanted.

_ ‘Oh you amuse me, Golden One,’ _ the voice laughed out.  _ ‘I won’t force you into anything, this is just a talk. I have no real power over you here.’ _

“That’s not reassuring,” Cloud muttered, slowing his pace and looking around at his surroundings. The trees were crystal, but they glowed with a golden hue, the grass looked like someone had gone overboard with the sparkly gold glitter and never bothered to clean it up, and by the looks of things even the stepping stones were becoming more gold as he got further into the forest. “I hope this isn’t supposed to impress me. I don’t like gold unless it’s money. Then I need that to keep my family fed and housed.”

The laugh rang through the air again, but no answer was given. Cloud wasn’t really expecting one if he was honest. He had enough shit going on in his life, he really didn’t need this. Cloud sighed and looked forward, preparing himself to walk for a long time. How long he didn’t know, just that he had a feeling when everything was gold he would be at the end of the damn path.

The laugh rang out again, and this time a voice followed the sound.  _ ‘Talk to me, Golden One. Tell me all about the world since I have been imprisoned so long ago.’ _

“I doubt it’s changed much since,” Cloud responded. “But I’ll tell you about the wonders I’ve experienced in my life, I doubt it will hurt anything to just talk about anything.”

The voice laughed again, and Cloud found himself talking about anything and everything, his friends, his battles, his life, the seemingly endless time resets him and others were going through. The owner of the voice stayed silent and let Cloud talk, gave his condolences at the parts that still choked Cloud up, and gave him advice towards things he was struggling with. He was so involved in the conversation, he didn’t realize he had reached the end of the path until he almost slammed into a golden wall.

_ ‘You have a wonderful life, Golden One,’ _ the voice said gently.  _ ‘It’s more beautiful than mine ever was. Come up the stairs, you are so very close to what I need to show you.’ _

Cloud looked up the stairs that ended in an arch that hid what was at the top. “Are you going to lock me here?”

_ ‘No,’ _ the voice whispered gently from seemingly right behind Cloud.  _ ‘I would never wish this fate to anyone, not even the ones who locked me away here.’ _

Cloud took a deep breath and ascended the stairs, his eyes never leaving the top of the stairs. When he reached the top he stopped dead in his tracks.

Before him was a double golden door with his exact likeness etched into both sides, the only thing about the door that wasn’t gold. From his blonde hair to his blue eyes, even down to the stitching on his black outfit, it was impossible to be anyone other than him. Even the sword both of the engravings were holding onto, almost as if the sword was the lock itself, was the exact copy of First Tsurugi down to the details of the blade Cloud had engraved himself into the base of the blades.

_ ‘You are more then you remember, Golden One,’ _ the voice rang out, this time clearly behind the doors.  _ ‘You will not get stuck here, I promise.’ _

Simple reassurances, meaningless when given by people you don’t know, he shouldn’t listen.

Cloud pushed the doors open and walked into the chamber they hid.

It was a large dome, nothing really of interest on the outer walls, no, what was interesting was the almost crystal-like dome that took up half the chamber, a dome that glowed green, the top connected to the lifestream above them by three thick ropes. Laying off to the side, brown and dead, was what looked like a tree root.

_ ‘It’s the fourth rope that sealed my prison,’ _ the voice said, answering the unspoken question. _ ‘It snapped sometime while you were still in the womb. It allowed me to reach out into the world and find a host to see the world with, to see if locking me away helped my mother and the Ancients in stopping the Calamity that they were so fearful of.’ _

“So you grabbed onto a child in the womb?”

_ ‘It was not my choice,’ _ the voice repeated, the sound of footsteps echoing from the crystal dome.  _ ‘I was drawn to the only one who held the same genetics that I do, a curse and a blessing I must say.’ _

Cloud turned around, ready to see whatever monster had dragged him here, he might not have a sword, but he could still put up a fight if needed. Except he turned around to come face to face with himself.

The man in the dome looked just like him, messy blonde locks, soft slightly feminine features, even the outfit was exactly like Cloud’s, the only difference was while Cloud had blue mako enhanced eyes, this man had golden eyes that glowed like the lifestream itself.

“Who are you?” Cloud asked, blinking in shock, his mind not really comprehending what he was seeing.

_ ‘I have no name,’ _ the man said.  _ ‘I lost it when you were born for the first time before Gaia started resetting. Something is hurting her inside the lifestream, something that her beloved last Ancient couldn’t heal.’ _

“So I took your name?” Cloud asked, moving closer to the dome.

** _‘STAY BACK!’_ ** The man said. Cloud stumbled and fell backwards, he felt as if he had just been punched.  _ ‘If you wish to leave this place and not be stuck here with me forever, never get closer than ten feet from the dome. It will sense you and drag you into the dome if you get any closer. And I promised you wouldn’t get stuck here.’ _

Cloud stayed on the floor where he landed, holding his gut. “What the hell did you do? That really fucking hurts.”

_ ‘I guess I forgot my own strength for a moment,’ _ the man offered sheepishly, moving to sit on a chair that appeared out of nowhere.

Cloud blinked as he sat up. The man was sitting in the chair like Rufus did, with that same ‘the world is mine’ arrogance.

The smile the man shot at Cloud also made him remember this man could hear his thoughts.

_ ‘I have all the rights in the world to own it,’ _ the man said, his eyes flaring even brighter.  _ ‘I am a god, after all, if I wanted it, I could change Gaia forever to suit my desires, and absolutely no one would be able to stop me. Not even my mother, Minerva, could stop me. She and Chaos slaved to seal me away for years, which resulted in Chaos losing his physical form and becoming a spirit of sorts, while my mother locked herself away in a statue where her followers were loyal enough to protect her while she recovered, which she still hasn’t. If either of them were to face me in their conditions, I would wipe them from existence.’ _

Cloud sat straighter, his mind reeling and also blanking at the same time.

_ ‘This is not a threat, Golden One,’ _ the man stated, his smile turning insane.  _ ‘It is the truth, simple facts even. I am not one to lie to people, I never have and I never will. I am the reason so many people hid the full power of materia from others, the reason why the Ancients passed on knowledge of magic to their descendants. Fear makes people do things they later regret. They learned that the hard way when they feared me and my power while fighting Jenova’s hellspawn and begged to have me locked away. They are all gone, erased from existence because they feared the only one able to eliminate her and her armies.’ _

_ ‘You, Golden One, are the only one who was able to fight Jenova and win after I was locked away. You are more special then you realize you are. You are the small sliver of my own being that escaped when the fourth rope broke. And as such, you can harness more power and control then others, it is why even unenhanced you were able to overpower and defeat our beloved Sephiroth. It is also the reason why you must never trust Minerva and Chaos to have your back if you ever find yourself in that situation. You are the only one that can save me, that can save us.’ _

“Save us?” Cloud asked, trying to process what he was hearing. “What do you mean? What are you trying to say?”

_ ‘Go home now, Golden One,’ _ the man said, rising from his seat.  _ ‘We can talk more later, but now, you must return to your family.’ _

Cloud tried to protest, but he found himself flung out the doors and down the stairs, even though the forest, unable to stop or say a word. And before he felt the draw of his body laying in Zack’s arms he heard one last thing from the man.

_ ‘And go save our beloved Silver General. He may not be in physical danger, but mentally he is putting so much before himself, he will break if not shown that he can be selfish and want more than what's just good for his men. A good oral servicing goes a long way to helping men realize they can be selfish and want.’ _

******

To be fair, Zack kinda had it coming when he thought about it. Cloud was an experienced warrior who had nightmares of Hojo’s labs, even after lifetimes out of them. He had been around Cloud when he woke up from them, so Zack really couldn’t blame him, as Zack found himself flipped and slammed into the wall opposite of the room and into the hallway.

Didn’t mean it didn’t hurt any less though.

“Zack!” Aerith called as she ran to his side, instantly helping him stand, her eyes wide with fear and surprise. “What happened?”

“Spike might have had a nightmare and I accidentally woke him at the wrong time,” Zack responded, using the wall to help himself to his full height and to give Aerith help to get him standing again. “He’s going to be upset that I broke the wall though.”

Zack paused and turned his head to listen into the room, and what he heard made him chuckle in laughter.

“Zack?” Aerith asked, sounding worried.

“Wasn’t a nightmare after all then,” Zack chuckled, then hugged Aerith to him, pushing his front against her back. “He had a fun time wet dream of Seph.”

“Not funny Zack,” Aerith grumbled, moving out of his arms, heading to enter the room through the door.

Zack laughed again and climbed through the hole in the wall, moving to throw himself on Cloud’s confused and dazed body. Spike was adorable when he had just woken up.

“Zack!” Aerith called out, trying to pull him off Cloud. “Get off him before you get thrown through another wall!”

“Thrown through a wall?” came the confused reply from under Zack, before Cloud could poke his head out and look right at the wall that was broken. “My wall is broken…”

Deadpanned, not all their responses, and the continued confusion. Zack lifted his head to look Cloud in the eyes. Bright blue, brighter than normal glow, slightly more gold flakes, but no sign of someone looking through his buddies eyes.

“Cloud?” Zack asked, shifting so he could restrain his best friend if needed. “Are you okay? You hearing any voices?”

Cloud blinked up at him slowly, as if it was taking time to process what was being said. “Why would I be hearing voices? What are you doing sitting on top of me anyway?”

Zack blinked, looked down at how he was on top of Cloud, and sure enough, he was sitting on Cloud’s legs, his hands on either side of Cloud’s head. Zack looked back up at Cloud’s face, his eyes clear and sharp, fully awake.

“I mean you're hot and all,” Cloud began, pushing Zack up. “But you're not my type. So save the position for Aerith.”

Zack, let himself flop off Cloud, watching as his best friend stood and started stretching his body. He probably saw it because he was so focused on Cloud and what he was doing, but Cloud winced every time he stretched out his stomach muscles. It was like Cloud had been punched and his body wasn’t kicking in to heal it.

Zack knew he couldn’t let this slide, Cloud had gotten hurt somewhere and he had to help his little buddy, his best friend, his baby brother. But Cloud just waved and said he was going to go get breakfast before spending his day with his little girl.

Zack knew he was dismissed, could hear it in the tone that Cloud had used, the same tone the older Firsts used with them when military business was done being conducted. Zack gritted his teeth and watched Cloud walk away, watched his best friend look more wary and defeated then he had ever been.

Zack wanted to help.

Zack needed to help.

But Zack just let his head fall into his arms, he felt so useless, so helpless when it came to Spike. He didn’t know how long he had sat there, but when he looked up from his hands he saw Tifa and a bear of a man with a metal arm working on fixing the wall, Aerith sitting on the floor with her head on his leg and her hand resting on his arm, asleep.

“Welcome back to the world of the living, Zack,” Tifa said, moving over to him from the significantly smaller hole in the wall. “You didn’t respond to any attempts to get you out of your thoughts. Aerith eventually just gave up and curled against your legs. She was worried about you, said after Cloud left you just collapsed and stopped responding to what was around you.”

“Your red coat wearing SOLDIER buddy came by to see you today,” the burly man said, moving to lean against the wall. “He said your mentor was in a fit and was scared you were one of the few SOLDIERs that were killed for good in that battle. You should return to them as soon as you are healed.”

“But you're always welcome back at any time,” Tifa chimed in. “You’re family after all! Even if Barrett is a pain in the ass about it!”

“Don’t be a stranger,” came a young female voice from the hole. “We don’t like our family staying away for long periods of time. We just barely tolerate it from Vincent, we won’t from you though!”

“Get out of the walls Yuffie!” Barrett called out, banging on the wall beside him. A startled yelp rang out before Yuffie was quickly into the room from the opening in the wall. “Cloud would be mad knowing you made a maze system hideaway in his walls. He gave you an entire maze-like cavern with access to the sky and ocean to build your shrines to your water gods. He even gave you the tools to keep making more caverns and caves, to make traps and shit to sate your overactive ass.”

Zack smiled lightly at the antics of the group before him, they were a true family. He wished that he had a family like them, but Angeal and Genesis had been drifting closer to the other and further from him, and even Seph was slowly drifting away from him. Even Cloud had walked away from him. His family was falling apart, while this family before him were building themselves stronger than ever, and Cloud was part of this family.

Zack sighed softly and shifted so he could pick up Aerith and lay her on the bed. When he turned around everyone was looking at him.

“You guys are right,” Zack said, forcing fake cheer into his voice. He couldn’t feel anything but shame and self-hate at the moment. He couldn’t help anyone, not his family, not his friends, and not himself. “I’ll drop by again, but I do have to get going. I’ll bring back the money I owe for breaking the wall when I drop by next.”

Zack waved and walked out of the room with his smile forced into place. He walked out of the house and through the mist wall surrounding Cloud’s property never once dropping his smile or happy go-getter attitude. Only when he had reached the path down the mountain, did he let his smile fade into a frown and his mind wander.

“How am I supposed to protect my family when I can’t even keep my family from falling apart around me?” Zack asked into the mountain air, kicking the loose rocks on the mountain path. “How am I supposed to help those around me when I myself can’t even fight on the same level as them?”

Zack was so consumed by his thoughts that he didn’t notice the red eyes watching him descend down the mountain to the town below.

Later as Zack found himself being attacked from behind, he could only blame his own inattention to his surroundings as his face hit the mountain path and his world went black.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sephiroth gets screen-time. The title of the story starts making more sense from this point on. Prepare everyone. For answers to questions you might not have even asked!

Sephiroth paced in his makeshift office, his mind whirling with all kinds of problems and events that could have happened to make Zack be gone for over two months now. He had sent men out to the mountain, the last place he had seen Zack run to during the beginning of the battle, but no one could find any evidence of him ever climbing the mountain, let alone being killed on it. That and at least a day after Zack had run off, Cloud had arrived and cut so many of their foes down, then completely wiped the army off of Gaia and then disappeared to take care of a ‘family member.’

Seph didn’t know what to do at this point. He had tried everything but going up the mountain himself, even if he insisted on looking for Zack with the others that had gone to the mountain. Angeal and Genesis had protested, Angeal going to look while Gen kept him in lockdown, scared that Cloud would come back and make Seph fulfill his part of the deal at any time.

And honestly, Seph was hoping that Cloud would come back, look at him with either bright blue or burning gold and tell him that it was time to pay his end of the deal, just so he could see if Zack was under Cloud’s care and really was too injured to return even after two months.

“Zack never returned did he?” Came the sudden voice from behind Sephiroth.

Seph would never admit it, but he did jump almost three feet into the air while turning around, his eyes wide and his hand moving towards the empty air at his hip.

Red eyes shined with amusement, thin pale lips turned up slightly in a smirk, and the smugness radiating from the red-cloaked man that had managed to enter his office and lean against the far wall without him knowing, put Sephiroth on guard.

“Zack’s whereabouts are none of your concern,” Sephiroth said, secretly pleased when his voice came out steady and strong. “Who are you and how did you get into my office?”

“Vincent Valentine,” the man said, shifting to lean more of his weight against the wall. “And I walked in while you were lost in thought mumbling about Zack being gone for over two months now.”

“I mumble?” Sephiroth questioned, looking highly alarmed. “Since when have I mumbled? How much info did I accidentally give people over my life because of this?!”

Vincent chuckled, then pushed off the wall and walked closer to Sephiroth, stopping at his desk. “I lied about the mumbling, you don’t actually do it. I’ve been told I need to joke more by my friends and comrades. Excuse my bad joke.” Vincent shifted slightly and propped his hip against the edge of the desk, waving to the chair. “You might want to sit down for this. I have info you need.”

Sephiroth wasn’t intimidated by the man, even when he put his hand on a modified gun that could rip through him easily, he wasn’t. It was exhaustion and the fear and worry for Zack that had his legs trembling and him obeying the man to sit. He definitely wasn’t afraid of the man that entered his office without a sound, had situated himself between Sephiroth and his sword, and had a large gun that could kill him with one well-aimed shot.

“Speak,” Sephiroth didn’t give himself a mental pat on the back for keeping his voice even and emotionless.

“A week after your little town was attacked,” Vincent began, sliding himself up on the desk to sit on the corner. “Zack woke up at my leader's home, his muscles sore and pain still plaguing him, but he was alive and recovering. Our leader made sure Zack stayed until he was fully recovered, well he wanted to anyway. Something happened between the two of them that ended up with Zack through a wall and our leader going off to the marshes to hunt and kill Midgar Zoloms. I had arrived that night and watched Zack walk out of our leader’s home and the grounds, all with a fake smile on his face. I didn’t bother following him, I knew he lived down here, he didn’t have far to go and I had done a sweep of the mountain to ensure the enemy was dead and gone. I had gone inside the house, where I was dragged into fixing the hole before our youngest member crawled back into the walls through it and broke something or started making tunnels around in the walls, again. I should have followed Zack that night.”

“Zack should have returned two weeks after your town was attacked,” Vincent continued. “But because when our leader and I came through two days after Zack left and we didn’t see him in the town, even though people were all around, we became fearful. Our leader split us into groups to search for Zack. We searched the mountain every day, checked every cave and tunnel, even went into lakes and the places harder to reach to look for him, but we found nothing. We searched nearby towns, the plains, the forests, even went so far as to search the mines and ask for records of ships departing, any cargo ships or things that someone would have seen something suspicious on. We have groups spread out, people searching for Zack all over the world, and we have found nothing. Our only clue is the army that was attacking you all. Do you know anything about them at all? Because in all our travels we have never seen that symbol anywhere.”

Sephiroth blinked. That was a lot to process. But at the same time, Sephiroth frowned and thought. Had he seen that symbol before? Had the army said anything? Did he recognize anyone from that army?

“You better not be trying to attack me with that materia you're holding,” Vincent growled out. “You wouldn’t be able to cast before your body hit the floor.”

Seph blinked and looked down, startled to find he had grabbed the pale pink materia that always hangs around his neck from its chain. “It’s not an attack materia, it's more like a memory materia.”

“Memory materia?” Vincent repeated, his interest perked. “Could you use it to see if you had seen that symbol before?”

“It’s not my memories,” Sephiroth began, then cleared his throat. “It’s someone else’s memories. But I think I could see if she had seen them before. I’ll just need a while to… um… make it work for me… I guess…”

“Make it work for you?” Vincent repeated again, reaching out to touch the materia. Sephiroth was out of his chair and out of reach before Vincent could blink.

Sephiroth and Vincent had a staring contest after that as the environment became awkward and heavy. Then Vincent leaned back and nodded, his hand disappearing back under his cloak. Sephiroth released a sigh he hadn’t realized he had been holding, then stood straighter.

“I can see if she has any answers,” Sephiroth said, walking over where his sword hung on the wall. “But I would rather do this in the comfort of my own home, with my fellow Generals with us. I am… vulnerable while using this materia.”

Vincent let out a near-silent huff, then moved to follow Sephiroth out of the makeshift office and into the almost fully rebuilt town.

They walked in silence, Sephiroth only grabbing Genesis and dragging him along with them off his seat on a nice porch, Angeal had chased after them after that, intent on stopping whatever fight was about to break out. Seph had released Genesis shortly after dragging him off the porch, and now they were both following Sephiroth each one asking Sephiroth what he thought he was doing, not one asking about the red-cloaked man on the other side of him.

A quick glance to his side to make sure the strange man was still there proved that the man was still keeping pace next to them. Until it looked like he had vanished into thin air, Sephiroth blinked but kept moving until he was inside his living room and his front door was locked behind Angeal and Genesis.

“What makes you vulnerable while using the materia?” Was the first question asked in the house, from the man who seemed to melt from the shadows. Seph was expecting it this time but still had to whip around quickly his eyes wide as the man just appeared out of nowhere. Genesis and Angeal shouting in surprise just behind him.

“Fuck!” Genesis shouted. “Don’t do that, Vincent! You take off ten years of my life every time you do!”

“Good to see you as well, Genesis,” Vincent responded. “They miss you up at the house. You should visit more.”

“Been busy,” was Genesis’ response before grabbing Seph and dragging him towards his bedroom door. “Stay out here. You want answers from the materia you wait. Seph you are going to explain to me just what is going on. Angeal make the man some tea will you?”

“Zack has been missing for two months for us, a month and a half for Vincent and his group,” Seph started, even before they got close to the door. “Vincent and his group have been searching the entire planet looking for Zack since they realized he never made it down the mountain and back to the town. The only lead is the people who attacked us, and even they are dead and unable to be questioned. But Vincent believes we might know the symbol of our attackers, but I don’t remember reading anything about them while with Shinra. So I’m going to ask her if she knows anything about them.”

Genesis nodded and waved a hand to tell Geal to get to work on the tea, then slammed the door shut and locked it. “Well, you better get comfortable and relax then. I’m right here. If things go wrong I’m dragging you out, don’t worry.”

Sephiroth nodded, sighed, then slipped in his bed, his hand coming up to encase the materia. He had gotten better at asking it to take him into the memories and to keep himself out of the memories when he didn’t want to. He only hoped he had enough understanding to actually get where he wanted. “I wish to speak with her, let me speak to the owner of these memories.”

The last thing he saw before he closed his eyes was Genesis’ smile turning into a frown and his hand resting on top of his rapier.

‘What are they so afraid of?’

******

“They fear you’ll go insane again.” Came the soft voice from before Sephiroth.

Sephiroth opened his eyes and looked at the young woman before him. She was dressed in a skin-tight black shirt with a zipper that ran the entire length from top to bottom, her pants also black and tight, but baggy enough to not restrict movement when she needs to fight. She wore a belt with the symbol of a tiger and a wolf circling each other, the same symbol appearing on each of her shoulder guards. Her hair hung free and long, shining like mercury under the full moon.

“Insane from what?” Sephiroth asked, moving to sit before her, watching her sit before him.

“The monster that calls itself your mother,” She responded, bringing some of her hair forward to run her fingers through it. “The same one that calls me her granddaughter and tries to control my mind to destroy the world.” She looked up and smiled at him. “Though she’s not important to why you're really here. But I’ll tell you about her before you leave, so you know just how dangerous she is and how toxic and seductive her voice truly is.”

“Thank you,” Sephiroth said, then reached forward and started to draw a symbol into the ground. “Do you recognize this symbol?”

Twin snakes wrapped around an orb, streaks going through all of them multiple times as if it was the sun in a child’s picture.

“Dirt isn’t easy to pick up colors,” the girl said, shifting to get a better look. She hummed thoughtfully, then added a few things to the symbol Sephiroth had drawn. “Does this look like what you saw?”

And Sephiroth blinked, because now the symbol looked clearly like twin snakes constricting Gaia with the sunburst effect on it, but now the snakes were bleeding and the rays actually looked like swords. It looked exactly like the symbol the bastards that had chased Zack were wearing.

“Yes,” Sephiroth said, moving to sit beside the girl. “Do you know who they are?”

“No,” She said, standing up and dusting her pants off, then offered her hand to pick Sephiroth up. “But I can show you. You’ll need to summon your wing first though.”

“I may have a wing in the future, but I don’t have it now. I have tried to summon it before.”

“You have it here,” She laughed, before walking behind Sephiroth and placing her hand on his back. “Feel where my hand is, a coiled pressure should be exactly where it is. Release it.”

Sephiroth sighed and did as she told him, focusing on her hand and then the coiled pressure, then suddenly it was gone and the girl had yelped in shock.

“Shit!” She exclaimed. “They are fucking huge!”

“Language little bird,” Sephiroth said, then blinked as he realized what he had said. He turned around to apologize, but as soon as he was facing her, he was tackled as she threw herself into him and held him tight, her body shaking with silent sobs. Sephiroth smiled gently and wrapped his arms around the sobbing white-winged girl. “It’s alright, little bird. I promised you I wouldn’t let any of your reincarnations suffer the same treatment you did, and I won't break my vow to you.”

Seph didn’t know how long he had stood there holding the sobbing girl until she got herself back together.

“Sorry,” She mumbled as she pulled away slightly so she could look up at his face. “It’s just nice to hear that nickname again. I missed it.” 

She took a deep breath and pulled out of his arms entirely, her smile lighting up the night brighter than the mako in her eyes or the moon itself.

“Come on! Let’s mosey!”

And Sephiroth found himself laughing as he leapt into the air and followed her, two strong wings keeping him in the air and right at her heels.

“So tell me about what's happening in your time as we fly for a few hours!”

******

“My materia is more like a time travel materia than a memory materia,” the girl pouted as they touched down before the Northern Crater. “But telling that to Vincent would be bad, best let them all think it's a memory materia. Or that it only works for you, cause it kinda does.”

“I didn’t know what to tell him actually,” Seph responded, following as she started making her way down into the crater. “He did just show up in my office and demand answers.”

“He scared you,” She grunted, falling to the ledge below her. “As he always does when you don’t expect the man to just appear from the fucking shadows. Just start thinking he's everywhere and you’ll stop being scared of him. But don’t tell Uncle Gen, I love watching him jump as Vence pops out of nowhere.”

Sephiroth laughed as he followed her down to a cave that looked way too man-made to be natural. The electrical buzz he heard was confirmation enough that it was human-made. He stopped laughing and got serious quickly. A quick look up and careful calculations let him know exactly where this cave was.

He nodded at the girl and she began the descent into the cave, moving quickly enough to make progress but also slow enough for Seph to memorize the path. When they reached the end of the cave Sephiroth blinked at the gaping hole in the middle of what looked like a metal wall, or what was left of a metal wall.

“From your rescue mission escape,” the girl said, gripping her arm tightly, shifting slightly, before continuing on. “No one has been here since you guys destroyed the place, but I don’t know if the layout will be different in your time because you deserted Shinra instead of Zack being kidnapped out on a mission. I know what room you will find him in though.”

Sephiroth followed her around the base, she pointed out key parts that would never move position, like terminals that he could access to get blueprints and maps, but she hesitated before the door laying on the ground in the middle of the hallway.

“Is something wrong?” Sephiroth asked, moving to put his hand on her shoulder. “Were you held here too?”

She shook her head and sighed. “No, but living in a madman’s lab for so long, any lab makes you paranoid you never got free in the first place.” She shook her head and stood up straighter, her hand moving to grip his tightly. “Come on, we're almost to where Zack will be held.”

Sephiroth held her hand tightly as she led him into the destroyed room, and Sephiroth froze.

Blood, old and dry, covered the walls, chains hung from the ceiling and on the walls, blood coated every surface.

“They tortured him,” she whispered softly. “Almost killed him before you guys found him. He was here for almost a year though, so hopefully, the torture doesn’t break him too much when you guys save him.”

“I see,” Sephiroth said, then turned and walked out of the room, dragging the girl with him. “Little bird, are you sure you were never held here?”

She sighed and pushed herself into Sephiroth’s arms, then started trembling. “She showed me one life, one life where I would have my father and mother back, where I wouldn’t have this torture, this torment. But she told me and showed me. My one happy life where I could be reborn with my memories would be the life that changes the course of Gaia’s resets, of her attempts to heal herself.”

“In that life, two months after Zack was kidnapped, my Aunts were attacked as they played with me, and I was taken from my loving family and brought here for some sickos experiments. They had me for a week before my family came and saved us, me and my uncle. I wouldn’t remember the experiments, wouldn’t know what happened to me because I was so young, but I know that they had hurt me with them. Soon after I’m saved in that life, I’m playing with my uncle when one of my aunt's trips and materia goes flying from her hands. One of them, a Carbuncle summon lands on me, right where my heart is, and my skin absorbs the Summon materia.”

“Shit!” Sephiroth cursed, pulling her closer to him. “I promise that won’t happen to you. I’ll make sure you’re kept safe.”

But she shook her head and smiled sadly up at him, tears streaming down her face. “No. It’s the one thing that has to happen to me. I need to have that Carbuncle Summon absorbed into me. Or I don’t live to see the age of two. They fuck up my heart too much to be healed and saved. It’s only because the Carbuncle Summon materia merges in that spot that my heart heals enough for me to continue healing, for the mako to fix what they did to me, even though the process takes years.”

“What did they do to you?” Sephiroth questioned softly, stroking her hair as he crouched down to look the girl in the face. “What can I do to save you from this fate?”

“Nothing,” She smiled softly, wrapping her arms around his neck and curling closer to him. “By the time you tell Vincent that I’m in danger, it’ll be too late. I’m going to be kidnapped before anyone can save me.”

“I’m sorry,” Seph said gently, wrapping his arms around her tightly. “I promise I will find you before they can do too much serious damage to you.”

She laughed and pulled away from him. “I know you will. But let me tell you about the monster your friends are scared of, the monster that still lives in your world if they are scared you’ll fall to her influence. I tell you this because there is a very real possibility that she will be in this lab when you come to save us.”

Seph nodded and pulled her back into his arms. “What’s your name little bird?”

She pulled her head away from his neck and smiled up at him, her eyes shining and her smile lighting everything up, Seph was almost too distracted by the girl in his arms that he almost missed her next words.

“Rain Crescent Strife, Daughter of Sephiroth Crescent and Cloud Strife.”

******

When Sephiroth woke up, he looked right at Genesis. “Can you summon your wing? It’s a long flight to save Zack, and I would rather get there faster than an airship can move.”

Then he grabbed his coat and sword from their place on his wall and left the room, leaving Genesis staring after him in shock.

“I know where Zack is,” Sephiroth said as he walked into the room, making eye contact instantly with Vincent. “I also know you need to get back to your base and help your friends. They will be or already have been attacked. Get who you need and meet us at the Northern Crater.”

And without waiting for a nod or any confirmation, Sephiroth grabbed Angeal and dragged him out of the house, Genesis following them both. Sephiroth concentrated like his daughter had shown him and based on the stunned gasps that followed, he knew he had summoned his wings. He flexed them and brought them around to smile softly at the solid black wings he now owned. Of course, he still had two wings, Strife hadn’t thrown him into a reactor and broken the other one clean off yet.

Sephiroth turned around and looked at both his friends expectantly. Genesis sighed and summoned his wing, also black, but after a moment Genesis groaned and a second wing came bursting out. Seph turned his gaze to Angeal and smiled as the same thing happened for his white-winged friend. Aerith was a miracle worker indeed.

“We fly to the Northern Crater. We need to reach it soon before Zack gets hurt any worse.”

Genesis and Angeal nodded, then all three jumped into the air and took off towards the Northern Crater.

All three unaware of Vincent standing at the edge of the clearing watching them, before turning into a red mist and dashing off towards the mountain house as fast as he could. He would trust Sephiroth because Chaos had felt it, the aura of the baby in their house was the same aura that the materia gave off. Sephiroth was getting information from one of his daughters' lives. He would trust until given a reason not to.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some form of background info is given in a quick chapter, plot holes might be fixed. And things are starting to finally pick up and wrap up for everyone being away from each other. Here's to another chapter being up and posted!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this one took some time to write out as I literally had to force myself to not fall into the trap of letting the other characters run away with the story yet again. I had to get the two who could explain things in here, but instead of having answers to all the questions that people might have about what's happening, the Demon King decided he didn't want Cloud, and therefore you guys, getting all the answers. So I failed in that regard. Hopefully, everything makes more sense and answers are given as everything is getting to the tipping point.
> 
> Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

**Chapter 8**

Cloud had to admit it to himself. Even though Zack was still missing and no one could find him, they were slowly narrowing down where he could have been taken, and it was making Cloud feel just that tad bit happier. Happy enough that he spent extra time with his chocobos before making his way over to work on Fenrir for a few hours. His baby had begun to wobble slightly and Cloud just didn’t approve of the way the engine also had a slight whine and shake to it as he drove. He had to fix it before it got worse, his baby had to be perfect.

He also had to fix up the truck so Tifa could go down to the town at the base of the mountains and open up her bar down there. She was turning into a wonderful businesswoman and an even better owner of multiple bars that she ran with an iron grip. Quite literally in most cases.

He also had to make the sprinkler system for Aerith’s garden more heavy-duty and longer, as the woman didn’t seem to be able to keep her garden contained to the area Cloud had created just for her. Though he couldn’t complain too much, as it was nice to have the church sized garden extended so that flowers decorated the yards of land, and the hanging pots in the house and on the windows were very lovely. Though he did wish Zack was back, so he could apologize for failing him again, so he could see just how happy Aerith is surrounded by family and friends and flowers.

Cloud groaned and looked over at the playground he had built last week for Rain to play in outside. He smiled as he watched Aerith and Tifa play with her their laughs brightening his heart up more. He wanted to go play with them, but Tifa had threatened him, saying he had other work to do and they wanted to play with their niece. He waved when Aerith looked up, a smile lighting her face up as she caught sight of him watching them. Then she made the shooing motions with her hands and laughed.

Cloud laughed back as he shook his head and moved back on his way to the garage, Tifa’s truck was first on the list of things to do. He could go join them later after he got the big project out. He didn’t have another world crossing trip planned for at least another week, so he had time to fix his bike and spend it with his daughter and family.

His daughter… It still shocked him when he remembered Tseng’s face as the results came back from the DNA test. Tseng was with him on not being able to have children since he was a guy, so the results had actually left both of them as still as statues, both not able to comprehend what they were looking at. It took Vincent doing the test again himself, following the written instructions to the point, for it to sink in that Cloud was Rain’s biological parent. Which meant that Sephiroth and Cloud had gotten it on and had conceived her. And the only time during his time with Shinra that he could have possibly gotten it on with Sephiroth was the night of Zack’s drunk party where Cloud had taken Sephiroth back to his apartment and was forced to stay over because Sephiroth wouldn’t let him go. Which also meant that Cloud had consumed more alcohol than he realized if he was missing the chunk of the night where the godlike man Sephiroth himself had taken him to bed.

The loud explosion that threw Cloud backwards as he walked across his grounds lost in thought was the first sign that something was wrong. The second was how he watched, laying on the ground unable to move, as Tifa and Aerith were attacked by a group of men. Cloud’s head was spinning, his vision blurry, but he had enough cognition to recognize that these men were the same that attacked Zack and the town at the base of his mountain. Though he only realized it when one of the men ran over to him and started to pick him up, throwing him effortlessly over his shoulder.

He tried to fight back, but he was getting so tired just thinking about moving. The last thing Cloud saw before his world went black was Tifa and Aerith collapsed on the ground, unable to stand, reaching out for him, and his daughter screaming and fighting in the grasp of another one of the men.

**FINAL FANTASY 7**

“A second chain has been broken,” a voice called out above him. “We need to help them. Wake him so I can explain what is happening before he breaks free without the last two chains.”

Cloud groaned, his head was spinning and he felt sick to his stomach. Something was very wrong with his body, it wouldn’t actually respond to him and it was terrifying.

“Don’t try to move too much, Chosen one,” A soft female voice called out, a gentle hand laying itself on his shoulder. “The explosion happened right by your feet and your body is still trying to recover and build itself back up again.”

“What happened?” Cloud managed to get out. It hurt to talk, hell it hurt to breathe, it felt like something was ripping apart his chest.

“A lost god’s cult has attacked you and your family,” the female voice responded. “They were responsible for kidnapping Zack, attacking that town, and now they are responsible for kidnapping you and your daughter.”

“This wasn’t in my predictions,” another voice called out, but this one sounded like multiple voices. “We couldn’t tell you what went wrong. You weren’t supposed to be this injured or kidnapped. None of your family was supposed to get hurt. Not in any of my visions of the future.”

“Things change Gaia!” The female voice snapped. “Clearly something major has happened to make everything bad happen while we try so hard to prevent it.”

“What are you talking about?” Cloud managed, his eyes slowly fluttering open and his voice stronger. He was healing and things still burned, but it was more manageable.

Silence met his question, but Cloud didn’t notice, he was too busy staring into the golden eyes that had suddenly appeared before him. He knew this wasn’t one of the talkers. This was that man who called himself a god, who had dragged Cloud to his cell to have a chat.

_ ‘Hello again, Golden One,’ _ the owner of the golden eyes purred. _ ‘You have a very powerful protector trying to keep me from you. Why is that I wonder?’ _

Cloud found he couldn’t move again, something about those eyes were hypnotizing, and even though Cloud knew he was falling under a spell of some kind, he found he still couldn’t move even though he wanted to.

Until a blue blur that looked like the base of a dress swung before his face and the man above him was forced to dodge or get kicked in the face.

“Minerva!” the owner of the multiple voices called out. Cloud barely remembered that this one was referred to as Gaia. “You can’t fight him as you are now!”

_ ‘You should listen to your precious friend,  _ ** _Mother_ ** _ ,’  _ the man growled out, the last word spit out with venom and hate.  _ ‘You should know how weak you are compared to me. Even your beloved champion is nothing compared to me.’  _ The man slid fluidly into a sword stance that Cloud knew. 

And Cloud found himself worried about the woman he was being protected by. He was almost on his side at this point, the force behind Minerva’s kick being enough to give Cloud that little push to see what was before him.

Then a woman who looked a lot like Aerith dropped to her knees before Cloud, blocking off the sight of the battle that had started to rage behind the woman. Her eyes were the color of pure green mako and her hair had a more green tint than a brown, but her smile was the same and her eyes were still open.

“I need to explain as much as I can as fast as I can,” She began, her voice settling into multiple female voices. “Things are going wrong faster than we can fix ourselves. We never intended for you to find out about this, but that man has started breaking free from his cage and we need your help. I understand just how much you hate having the weight of the world on your shoulders, but you need to listen and understand.”

“Two thousand years ago when the Calamity fell from the sky, that man had the name of Demon King Strife, because all he brought was strife. He hated his origins but loved the people around him. Though he was cursed to bring strife to all he met, people flocked to him and followed him. They called him a God, their god. When these people found out about what Minerva and Chaos had done to seal him away they hated them and began to seek out Minerva’s resting place to kill her. Minerva’s followers hid her resting place from the world as best as they could and eventually only the extremist groups were left after hundreds of years.”

“The cult made a promise to their god that they would find a way to break him out, to let him rule the world as the god he was always meant to be. But they wouldn’t listen to reasoning about why his sealing was important. About why we had to seal him away deep within the planet in such a way where no one would find him.”

“The Demon King Strife had made a promise with the Calamity, one that spelled out our doom. He promised her that he would marry her first child, and make sure her lineage continued forever. He started working against us and our efforts to seal her away, to get rid of her and her contamination. It became almost impossible to stop the Calamity while he was backing her until Minerva and Chaos worked together to seal him away. Once he was sealed the ancients were able to finally seal the Calamity away as well, but hers was a prison that could be found by humans, while his was a prison I took and buried deep into the planet’s core.”

“Now his followers have found a way to free him, and he has hooked himself onto you if his current appearance is anything to go by. Please, Cloud, you need to help us keep him locked up. If he ever takes you to his cage don’t enter his tower, break everything you can see, and for our safety please never let him touch you if his barrier gets broken while you’re in his domain.”

_ ‘Times up, Gaia,’ _ Came the sing-song voice from behind the woman still kneeling before Cloud. Before Cloud could blink or Gaia could react, the Demon King Strife had kicked her and set her flying off to the side, until Cloud couldn’t see her anymore. 

Cloud tried to stand up, tried to move more than his head, but he found he still couldn’t move his body properly. He was pissed with himself until he met the bright golden eyes that watched him with fond amusement.

_ ‘You are so beautiful, Golden One,’ _ He whispered, crouching down to run his fingers over the side of Cloud’s face.  _ ‘Such beauty belongs by my side for eternity. Come and break me free when I call for you, and I can stop this time loop you and your friends have found yourselves in. I can fix this planet and save it from destruction. All you have to do is give yourself to me when the time comes. Now go and save that fascinating puppy. My followers might end up killing him by accident because they don’t know when my bindings break.’ _

A wicked smile followed the words, and then Cloud found himself being lifted into the man’s arms as his vision turned black again. The last thing he felt was the brush of lips against his own before he was lost to the world again.

**FINAL FANTASY 7**

She moved swiftly through the air, her wings beating silently but propelling her forward faster than anything else had ever moved. Something had gone wrong, she could feel it. She had to get to her scrying pool, back to where she first made the orb that she had sent to her father. She had to for she knew she had to warn him but she couldn’t reach him through her normal means. She was going to have to use her scrying pool to make sure he understood just how much danger everyone was in.

She instinctively dodged left and spun around in the air to look at what she had just missed crushing her, only to curse and fly faster to her pool. The sky was falling around her, the ground crumbling away into the darkness that seemed to suck the light away and still following her was the Lost Golden Demon God. She knew only one way this could have happened, and she was pissed she didn’t catch it sooner. She would have sent her father to save her and her mother instead of her uncle, have her mother’s family save her uncle they could handle it. But no, she didn’t have the knowledge that Gaia had to see the future, but why wouldn’t she tell her this was a possibility. Her world was crumbling around her, her free ride to see the world around her was coming to an end, and if her father didn’t quickly find her infant body then she would vanish just like her world around her.

“Come on Dad,” She muttered, dodging a larger piece of the shattering sky. “Hurry up and save me.”

The bright and deranged laugher bellowed behind her. She instinctively dodged to the right and dropped to the ground, only to launch herself back into the air to avoid the last of the flaming rocks that were chucked at her.

“Come on Mom,” She panted, pushing herself to go even faster, trying to outrun the man breaking her world to pieces. “Fight him and never let him win. I won’t forgive you if you let this man control and command you!”

She didn’t stop when she saw her pool, no, her world was too small, the darkness too close, her sky breaking above it. She had to put herself from this pocket of her own creation and into the tiny prison Gaia had promised would only be used as a last resort to keeping her alive.

With no hesitation and no fear, she plunged full force into the pool and let herself be pulled into the small cell around her father’s neck. She felt calm and warm, but the cold around her was bitter and reminded her of the Northern Crater.

Maybe she should have listened more when Gaia had explained the pocket dimension and the concept of being locked inside a materia for who knows how long. Because when she opened her eyes in her new home, all she saw was the white expanse of the Northern Crater and the hole where her uncle and her were being held.

Though as they got closer to where she felt her infant body was located, she also felt the undeniable pull whenever she was around her mother, which made sense as the materia was only safe in her parent’s hands, whether she inhabited it like this or not.

Please let her father be fast enough to stop whatever was taking place inside that hell of a crater.

**FINAL FANTASY VII**

The first thought that entered his head was that his head hurt almost like someone had tried to smash it into pieces. The second was that it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to think that those bastards had tried to smash his head into pieces, Goddess knew they were crazy enough. Though somewhere in his mind he knew he should be more worried about what was around him, about where his tormentors were located this time, but all he could focus on at that moment was the soft hand running through his hair and the soft surface he was resting on. It was much too different from his cell, but he felt so at peace he found he couldn’t be afraid of the changes.

“Those fools at Shinra have no idea how easy they have made our divine purpose!” Boomed a sudden voice from somewhere close but also far. “Continue pumping mako, you foolish buffoons. Keep making the chain holding our god captive break and shatter!”

Multiple laughs rang out, cheers and hollers, like the people were celebrating. He flinched slightly when the hand in his hair tightened. He held back the groan though, no need for them to hurt him more during their celebration, or at least try to keep them away for as long as possible until they start torturing him as a part of the celebration.

“Ahh!” Came a shout from next to him. He froze as the voice of his main torturer rang through the room to silence it. “But we can’t forget the main reason we hold this celebration! We hold this celebration to honor that our God has deemed his arrival near enough to bring him one of his beloved mates to his domain!” Cheers rang through the room again, the sounds of people clinking glasses together, dancing, and talking filled the air again.

“You were a hard one to find, Golden One,” The tormentor said again, the creaking of leather sounding like the guy either sat or shifted in place. “Though I hope you find your engagement present satisfactory. I take pride in having broken him so thoroughly. Are you enjoying your engagement party?”

“Fuck off,” came the soft and deadly reply from right above him. “I’m not marrying or mating your deranged god. In fact, once you unlock these chains your heads are going to roll.”

The deep joyful laugh from his tormentor rang out through the room, everyone now going quiet. Once the room was silent again, he felt the air chill and the atmosphere become deranged. He couldn’t help the slight shiver, but the hand in his hair was moving in gentle soothing circles.

“You think we fear death?” His tormentor said again, and he could see in his mind the deranged smile, that look that in his eyes that screamed madness, like all the others in this messed up place. “We know death awaits us when our god revives. In fact, the last step in bringing him back is the death of all his most loyal followers. When his second and last mate delivers himself here, our God will shatter the last links to his cell and call out to us, to give him the power he needs to bring himself back to our mortal plane, to bring himself to his two mates so he can claim them. And once he has claimed you both, he shall take his place as ruler of this corrupted planet and fix it.”

“I’ve stopped world-destroying entities before,” the person stroking his hair growled out. Something about the voice was very familiar. “I’ll stop your God and kill him for good this time. Mark my words.”

Laughs rang out through the room again, and slowly he realized that the people were leaving the room. Soon he was left in silence with the man on whatever soft object they were on. Slowly, in care this person wasn’t going to be a friendly and familiar face, he opened his eyes.

Brilliant glowing stormy blue eyes, soft feminine features, and spikey blonde hair were the first things he noticed as soon as they opened.

“Cloud.”

The man above him jolted and looked down at him, his eyes clearing up and turning into the cloudy blue look they got when he was concerned. He realized he had spoken, something he didn’t mean to do.

“Zack!” Suddenly, Cloud was running his hands over his body, turning his face side to side to check things, even did the follow my fingers with your eyes only test, before he leaned down and hugged him as best as he could. “Thank Minerva you're alive! When they brought you in and I saw all the blood and that you were limp I feared the worst!”

Zack weakly hugged Cloud back, his mind still reeling from what his tormentor had said, the fact that Cloud was here and alive, apparently being worshiped by the assholes and not being ripped apart and forced to bleed, it was the only thing he could do.

Oh, and to start crying of course.

Things had just gotten so much worse for them. They had an enemy they knew nothing about, an enemy they knew about but couldn’t do much against at the moment, and now they had what was probably an evil god trying to come back to the mortal world who was going to try to take Cloud and one other away to be his mates. He didn’t think he could handle this, not after being forced to endure torture just under Hojo level of brutal and insane for who knows how long.

He didn’t know if he voiced any of this, didn’t know if he had managed to hug Cloud tighter in his crying, but he found himself pulled closer to Cloud’s chest and held tightly but gently. If they stayed in that position, Cloud sitting on a large soft crimson sofa with Zack half in his lap both of them crying and holding each other for comfort, no one had to know.

“Don’t worry Zack,” Cloud muttered softly, his voice soothing even though it was harsh from crying. “Once I find a way out of these chains I’m going to make sure we both get out of here and that all those bastards die before their ‘God’ is ready for them. I’m not losing you again.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end is coming, the players are all entering the final area. The final battle is just around the corner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this has taken so long to get out! I swear I haven't forgotten this or any of my other stories! It's just my brothers have classwork to do online and while they usually have their own laptops from school to work on, their's were having issues so they had to use the laptop I usually use for writing to do their work! But now that the problems are solved I have the laptop back again and hopefully, soon I will have my own computer ready to be used to write stories on!
> 
> Also as a side note my birthday was April 19 and my older brother got me more books for a series I am really loving and enjoying and when I finally got the books like 8 or 9 days ago at the time of this posting, I kinda reread the books I already had and then the new ones without stopping for anything other than food, drinks, and sleep. So that was another factor in the 'not writing anything for my stories for a while' problem. but I'm done all 8 books now so I'm able to put everything back into writing the stories you all seem to enjoy!

**Chapter 9**

Cloud felt tired beyond reason, but he still had to keep watch over Zack as he slept and regained his strength, to wait for his chance to save them both. He knew Sephiroth was coming, the bastards had basically told him so. He had to act before Sephiroth reached them, had to get him and Zack out of the danger zone. He had to-

“Why are we supposed to be keeping the girl alive?” Came the muffled voice from behind one of the walls. “She’s not our God’s child. She is the child of a lost man.”

The response was too quiet to hear but it seemed like the conversation was over. And Cloud finally got that bad feeling back, that one that said he had forgotten something major that could only be because of blunt force trauma to his head.

And then he remembered what happened. The explosion that blew him back hard enough to put him out of commission long enough for his attackers to kidnap him and beat his friends so they couldn’t follow him. But they also had taken his daughter as well, his beautiful baby girl that those bastards were probably going to hurt. His daughter was somewhere in this place and now he had to find her, had to save her. Gaia, he had to free his baby girl!

Cloud tugged again at the chains holding him to the floor in this big hall. He growled as they didn’t even budge. All his strength meant nothing to these chains. If he had his sword then he could have cut the damn chains, but no! They had either left them behind when he was kidnapped or they took it when they got here.

Cloud sighed as he started rubbing Zack’s back and running his other hand through his hair. Who was he trying to kid? He couldn’t get out of this situation without help and Zack was still way too weak to even try to help him. He needed help, he needed to be saved like some stupid damsel in distress.

“Cloud what are we going to do about this situation?” Came the sudden but soft question from Zack, his head curling closer to Cloud’s shoulders. “I don’t think I can help you with an escape plan. I can barely even feel my legs let alone think about fighting. My arms tremble just by lifting them up an inch.”

“We can’t escape right now, Zack,” Cloud sighed, curling his arms around Zack tighter. For all his strength and will, even he had to admit that it was going to be impossible for them to escape on their own. “I can’t break the chains and even if I could, I don’t have my weapons. I could put up a small fight hand-to-hand, but not a huge one. We wouldn’t make it very far on our own. You’re also in no condition to even support your own weight right now, so that would hold me back even more, making escape impossible.”

“Nothing is impossible,” Zack snorted out. “Impossible just says I’m possible but I’m extremely hard to do. Life motto, Spike.”

“I can’t get out of the chains,” Cloud repeated, ignoring Zack’s pout. “So escape is impossible unless you want to leave and try to find the key to the locks so we can unlock them. You wouldn’t get off the sofa without my help, and if you fall you are staying on the floor where I can nudge you with my foot.”

“How were you captured and chained up anyway?” Zack asked, tilting his head and looking at Cloud’s wrists. “Like what transpired to have you in such a vulnerable state?”

“A very well placed explosion.”

Zack blinked, then shoved his head back into Cloud’s shoulder, clearly unable to even start thinking about his precious Spike being blown up with an explosion. Cloud snorted slightly when Zack groaned.

“Please, it wasn’t even the first time. At least this time I managed to get away with my legs mostly intact so they were easier to heal than the last time.”

**FINAL FANTASY 7**

Sephiroth had to admit, Genesis was really good at melting and exploding metal. He was so good it was almost worrying actually. Of course, in true Genesis fashion, when asked he just went on a Loveless rant that Seph ignored as soon as Gen opened his mouth and the first word came out with that poetic tilt.

Doesn’t mean he’s ignoring Genesis completely, Sephiroth just learned to listen to the inflections and tilts to Genesis’ voice so he could tell when Genesis was quoting and when he’s not. Sephiroth had also learned to tune in and out to listen when the change occurred. Angeal had acquired the same skill because he was also Genesis’ friend, but honestly who wouldn’t gain the skill when faced with Genesis quoting Loveless every day of your lives?

Of course, they were trying to be as stealthy as possible and take out their enemies quickly so they could save Zack as quickly as possible and get out, but they hadn’t seen anyone around on the way to the control room, aka where the terminal he could hack into was located. It was eerily quiet and it was putting them all on edge.

So the sudden burn from the materia around his neck when they passed by a very large and very sealed door was very startling. Hence why he had a feeling the others would never let him live down the very girly shriek that was ripped from his lips from the sudden unbearable pain coming from the materia. It hurt and he hated it. But he also realized instantly why this was happening. Sephiroth was glaring death at the door as he tried to lead them on.

Though the big door was quite much for such a small girl… 

And of course, in true form of the passionate pyromaniac, Genesis had already thrown the door Sephiroth was death glaring open, a chuckle escaping him, undoubtedly because of the startled and pain-filled shriek that he had released. Sephiroth only sighed as he pushed the burning pain aside. It wasn’t like he was going to die or have any limitations in fights while the materia burned, but it was still painful to keep on his neck, though he knew if he took it off he would lose it, and she would kick his ass for that.

Though the pain wasn’t too much for Sephiroth to understand that yes, the burning was caused by something beyond that door, but even he knew that door was way too big for the reason he had for the burning pain. So either the source is much bigger than he thought, or something huge was lying in wait between him and the source. Besides, who needs a door five times his size? He was only around six feet tall, why someone would need a door around thirty feet tall was beyond him.

Sephiroth sighed again and followed Genesis and Angeal as they entered the giant hall like chamber. It really did look like one of the boss rooms from those video games that Zack had tried to make him play one time. It was empty, it was huge, and a very bone vibrating and ground-shaking bass-filled music filled the air from speakers hanging on the walls and ceiling.

“Zack would be warning us against sudden giant monster attacks right about now,” Angeal stated, turning around to look at the entire room. “I mean, I understand the high ceilings and supports because this is literally in a mountain, but do they really need this huge hall? It’s completely empty. What’s the point?”

“Boss monsters clearly,” Sephiroth replied, rubbing the materia that was starting to grow into a very uncomfortable heat against his skin. It was actually starting to hurt worse now like someone was trying to burn a hole into his flesh and was succeeding in the most painful and slow way possible.

“All boss rooms have a huge monster in them,” Genesis stated matter-of-factly like he was the video game expert. “If it’s not at the end of the hall, it's on the ceiling or coming in through a hole high in the wall. But I see none of those. Think maybe we found the boss room before the boss was put into place?”

Sephiroth raised a brow at Genesis while Angeal just stared blankly at him. Genesis looked back at them with his own brow raised, his hand gesturing for one of them to talk.

“Who are you and what have you done to our poetry-loving General?” Angeal stuttered out. Sephiroth didn’t know if Genesis just listened more to the puppy then they did when he talked about the games he loved playing and wanted to play with them, or if he was a video game fan himself and he played just as much as Zack when he wasn’t terrorizing people and hunting monsters.

“Just because I took Zack up on offers of dinner and games when you guys didn’t, doesn’t mean that I’ve changed that much,” Genesis scoffed, clearly offended. “There is only so much a man can do to amuse himself after all when his friends all have other plans that don’t include him.”

After Genesis finished speaking, he did a very dramatic twirl and started stalking towards the door. “Clearly nothing is here. We’re leaving.” Of course, after Genesis had made it half towards the door it had slammed shut and was covered up in what looked like molten stone and slime.

“Something is here with us,” Angeal groaned, shifting to reach the Buster Sword on his back. “Bad day to leave the other sword behind. Something tells me we’re going to have to pull out all the stops for this one.”

“Nothing too difficult will be here,” Genesis responded, getting his rapier ready.

Seph sighed again and pulled out his Masamune.

Though if he knew he would look back on this moment and want to hit Genesis multiple times for that stupid comment, he would not hold back. The thing that rose from the floor was more a monster in power than even him when he was going all out.

**FINAL FANTASY 7**

Her cage was burning. It was starting to really become uncomfortable how close that bastard was to setting her on fire, but she had to hold strong and keep fighting it. Sephiroth didn’t deserve this pain because of the golden bastard. She had to hold strong, even though it hurt like a bitch. Even her advanced mastery with water materia and magic was being overcome by the flames that were constantly being sent into her prison. The only reason she was still in this fight was because that man wasn’t able to enter her domain and kill her without being stuck himself.

That was her role in this endeavor. She was sent here to this prison, by Minerva herself, to protect this world from the disaster that destroyed her world and left her the only living thing left on the planet. Nothing was growing anymore, so after Gaia showed her how to make her own world, she made sure she filled it with as much living life as she could, but human’s she couldn’t add. And it was all thanks to that bastard that was currently hunting Sephiroth and Cloud.

She knew he would catch on to her sooner rather than later, he could feel her link and connection to the planet even though she wasn’t from this time. Though he was a creature of the planet so time didn’t really matter to him. She knew he would hunt her as best as he could trying to eliminate her before she could get a physical body here to stop him.

She was the only one able to destroy the damn demon god, as she had proved in her time. She was the only one to ever stand a chance. She was the one that ended him with her own two blades and extensive, almost limitless magic prowess and abilities.

But all that meant nothing the moment she saw the monster raise from the ground.

See, her original plan was to plant the materia around Sephiroth’s neck into her younger counterpart so she would have a physical form here, even if it was a small one, and let herself become her younger self. She would let all her knowledge flow to the younger bit by bit so she could become a fighting force early on her in life. She would be able to fight the golden demon and stop him before he even stepped foot off his reincarnation throne. Except they were so much closer to freeing him then in her time.

So that is why, when the monster rose from the ground before the three outside the materia, she knew she had to act now, even if her materia would shatter in the process and her current body would exist in this world, even if she could no longer find the happiness Minerva and Gaia told her she could find. She had to act now instead of later.

She didn’t want to see her favorite uncles die and her father get dragged into a life of servitude to the bastard currently trying to deep fry her inside her materia after all.

She’ll just have to hope he forgives her for letting the full force of the flames hit him when she escapes her materia.

“Forgive me,” She whispered to no one. Before she shut her eyes and concentrated harder than ever.

**FINAL FANTASY 7**

Sephiroth was really getting annoyed at the ever-increasing burning from the materia around his neck. It was a horrible distraction against an opponent that needed his full attention so he could keep dodging its attacks and slowly chip away at its life. Now Sephiroth understood why Zack always made sure he was stocked with items and equipment as strong as he could get in his games before entering a boss room. These things were annoyingly strong and terribly hard to actually hit.

So if the damn burn would stop getting worse, maybe he could have a better chance at defeating this monstrous thing!

The monstrous ‘boss’ that they were fighting was very twisted. It was shaped like a Malboro and could move like one, except it was made from metal and stone. It still had the dreaded bad breath attack that Malboro’s were known for, except it also had control over metal, as we found out when it created a wall and spikes using the floor and walls when we stood still too long.

Genesis almost lost his arm when the first spikes shot out of the ground, Angeal just about became a permanent fixture to the ceiling when it created the first wall, and he was almost swatted into the monster’s body when it showed it could move the damn walls to slap us around. All in all, this was a fight he was more than ready to be done with, he was also done with the burning and cracking sounds coming from the materia around his neck.

Wait? Cracking sounds?

Sephiroth jumped backwards towards where Genesis was trying to catch his breath and gulp down another potion. The materia was burning and was clearly cracking. Genesis knew more about materia then he did, logically Genesis should know what was happening to the materia around his neck.

“It's cracking,” was how he greeted Genesis. His free hand waved to the materia around his neck. Genesis looked down at the materia, squinted at it, then yelped.

“It’s not just cracking Sephiroth!” Genesis yelled, ripping the cord that was holding the materia around his neck. “It’s about to explode!”

Sephiroth blinked, and in that moment, Genesis threw the materia at the monster still fighting Angeal with a shout for Angeal to get back, and the materia landed on the monster's head. Sephiroth finished blinking in time to see the materia burst on the monster's head, flames engulfing it, and melting the metal part of the monster's body, and then the flames raced outwards towards the three SOLDIERs who had jumped back to the still-sealed door. They had nowhere to go and a wall of fire was rapidly approaching, a fire so hot that it made Genesis’ flames look like a small spark.

“Alright you fucker,” came a very familiar female voice from within the flames.

Sephiroth almost collapsed to his knees along with Angeal and Genesis when he realized that the flames had stopped going forward and were raging a foot from their faces.

“You wanna play with fire?” Came the voice again, before the fire started receding. “Then we’ll play with fire.”

Sephiroth, Angeal, and Genesis could only stand back and look on with awe as the flames that were once running free and rampaging in the room were brought towards the monster in the middle of the flames. They were slowly starting to see the monster through all the flames, but it was melting and burning alive at the same time. The flames were so hot that the metal plating was puddling on the floor, that the stone that made up the rest of its body was also melting and puddling on the floor as well.

When the monster was dead, because it was melted puddles on the ground at this point that was also being evaporated and hardened as the flames died down, the only thing left standing was the silhouette of a person, a person that was walking into the middle of the flames. The person didn’t seem to care at all about the flames surrounding them, nor did they seem to be affected by the flames in the slightest.

“Maybe next time we met,” the person said again, her voice ringing clear as the flames were seemingly blown away by nothing. “Don’t try to deep fry me in a materia I can escape from, bastard. Or you’ll lose what makes you a man before I take your life.” A loud shattering crunch was heard before the flames disappeared completely, and the person was seen clearer.

The female standing in the center of the room was dressed in a skin-tight ridged black shirt with a zipper that ran the entire length from top to bottom, her pants were also black and tight, but baggy enough to not restrict movement. She was wearing a belt with the symbol of a tiger and a wolf circling each other, the same symbol appearing on each of her shoulder guards. Her long and free-flowing hair a beautiful light golden color so light it's almost pure silver, while her eyes are a brighter blue than the sky, and are glowing brighter than the sun itself. Sephiroth knew this girl, and he knew her well. He had been pulled into her world and shown her memories many times already. He knew her better than he probably knew himself.

“Rain,” he found himself whispering, taking a hesitant step towards the girl before him.

Genesis grabbed his arm and dragged him back towards the door.

“Who are you?” Angeal demanded.

“Seph stay back,” Genesis said, standing in front of him. “I don’t know who this girl is, but anything in here is bad news.”

Sephiroth opened his mouth to protest when the young woman turned towards them, her eyes catching his. She smiled and tilted her head while holding a finger to her lips.

“Hush now,” She called out. “I just got out of a prison, mind being just a tad bit quieter?”

Angeal and Genesis rushed her, and Sephiroth heard himself cry out, but what he said was lost to even him, as Genesis and Angeal found themselves blown backwards before they got close to her.

“I said be quiet,” She snapped. Her hands were twitching, her eyes were flaring. She looked about ready to snap. “What part of being quiet means fight?”

“Where are your manners, Little Bird?” Sephiroth growled out, moving to stand before the smaller warrior in the room. “You may have just escaped the materia, but you have no right to be a mannerless barbarian about it.”

She flinched under his gaze, her eyes dulling back to normal, her hands moving to fold in front of her, she looked like a subdued child who was used to being treated harshly. It didn’t make Sephiroth happier, it didn’t calm him down, it pissed him off. Where was the warrior who was willing to joke and fight with him in the air even after he had scolded her like this?

“Sorry,” She muttered, closing her eyes. “I guess actually having this body instead of the one I was prepared to have is kinda throwing me off my game. It just feels wrong to be in two places at once… I wasn’t prepared for it.”

“Two places at once?” Sephiroth asked, watching her closely. He could hear Genesis and Angeal getting closer, and one of them had their sword out and ready to attack with. “You mean you can feel where your infant self is?”

Her eyes snapped open and burned brightly. It seemed she was pissed at something again. “No! I can feel what she feels! I can see what she sees! I am her and she is me! I don’t physically belong in this world, Dad! And if nothing is done to bring us together so I can get inside the body that belongs in this world, then one of us will disappear forever. And I would much rather go through life in a new world as an infant, then as the monster I am now.”

Sephiroth blinked. He didn’t even think that was a possibility. He was trying to figure out a way to free her from the materia and bring her here, but he didn’t think that having her here would affect anyone else enough to make them stop existing.

“Did she just call you dad?” Genesis asked, blinking, and looking between both Sephiroth and the girl.

“The hair is the same,” Angeal added.

They both looked completely lost looking at the girl and then back to him.

“Of course I did,” She merrily sang, before wrapping her arms around him to rest against his chest. “He is my dad after all.”

“Genesis, Angeal,” Sephiroth began, sighing heavily. “This is my daughter from another time, her name is Rain Cresent Strife.”

He had a long explanation ahead of him, and they hadn’t even gotten close to finding Zack yet. From a near-impossible fight to near impossible conversations. How many curve balls will he be thrown until this mission is over?

**FINAL FANTASY 7**

Cloud had to admit once again that Zack was never one to stay down for long. It had only taken him maybe three hours of resting and not moving for his body to recover enough for him to be bouncing back onto his feet and running around. Which was a very good thing it turned out because as soon as Zack went off to try to find something to unlock the chains around his wrists, the door opened to show the fuckers who had hurt Zack once coming in with equipment covered in blood that made Cloud furious that they were going to hurt him more.

“Where did the sacrifice go?” The biggest and buffest one growled out, moving to probably try to hurt him instead.

“Who?” Cloud asked, tilting his head to the side to imitate confusion. He was trying to lure the bastards in, they had tools he could use, and if he could get them close enough he could end them and free himself.

The man who seemed to be in charge grabbed Cloud by his hair and yanked him up, the sudden pain enough to make Cloud hiss. Fuck he wasn’t prepared for that.

“Don’t act dumb!” The bastard growled. “You know exactly who I’m talking about. Where is the black-haired man?”

“Like hell I’d tell you!” Cloud growled before he flipped and used the chains to choke the man who had grabbed his hair. He glared at the others as he pulled the chains tighter and tighter until he heard the crack and then the sickening sound of blunt metal tearing through flesh. The chains went slack as the headless body dropped to the floor behind him. “Unlock them, or you're next.”

The smallest one, who looked to be the youngest as well, quickly approached and started to unlock the chains, the other one protested but made no move to stop the younger from freeing him. He was out of the chains quickly, with the younger-looking up at him, and the others fidgeting in place. He didn’t care about them, if they got in his way he would kill them. Simple as that.

“A young girl, toddler aged, was brought here with me,” Cloud said, watching them closely. “Bring me to her.”

The others hesitated and looked between themselves, clearly trying to have a conversation with their eyes about what they should do. Cloud didn’t have time for this. He was about to move to smash another head in to make them listen when a tug on his belt had him looking down at the small one next to him.

“I take you.”

Cloud nodded and turned to face the child, ignoring the very loud and very angry protests as he followed the child that was quite possibly going against his people by helping him.

“Thank you.”

As he was led down corridor after corridor, he eventually ran into Zack who was carrying two large swords, both swords Cloud was very intimate with.

“I found your sword, and this really cool looking one,” Zack reported, before handing First Tsurgi to Cloud, keeping the other one for himself. “I saw other blades, but I only grabbed your blade, and then this one because it called to me, ya know?”

Cloud nodded to Zack and put his sword on his back, shifting so he was finally comfortable again. “The Ultima weapon would call out to you. It’s a blade only meant to be wielded by heroes after all.”

It might not be true by any stretch of the truth, but to see Zack light up and smile so brightly it was worth it.

It was the only thing keeping him going after seeing Zack and his daughter caved into a part of the facility he couldn’t reach without upsetting more of the now fragile section after everything went wrong so fast.

Cloud felt the world fading in and out, he felt the pain of having been too close to the explosion, too close to the tumbling rocks. The only thing Cloud knew for sure was that he was being carried by a man with pure golden eyes that made Cloud terrified that he was too late to do anything.

It was that fear that he really was about to lose everything that stayed with Cloud, even when his world went black once again.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a lot happens here, but it is still necessary for building up to the final battle and wrap up of this story! 
> 
> I do want to take this moment and apologize to all my early readers and anyone subscribed who got notified that I had double uploaded when Chapter 9 came out. Due to technical issues that I wasn't aware of, Chapter 9 got posted twice and without two lovely readers commenting and letting me know that Chapter 9 got double posted, I would have never caught it. So thank you for catching that and letting me know right away what had happened, and I'm sorry to everyone else who was excited to see this story hit 10 only to come and find it only really had 9 chapters to it. Hopefully, this chapter makes up for it and I hope you all have a lovely day/night!
> 
> It is now officially 3:40 am at the time of this going up for me and I still need to clear my bed off and hope that I can get some sleep before I start writing the next chapter for one of my stories!
> 
> Thank you all and hope you all enjoy the jumbled mess that is Chapter 10!

Chapter 10

Pain.

Everything was in pain.

It was too much.

Make it stop.

Please! Someone!

Make the pain stop!

_ ‘Hush, Golden One.’ _

Terror. Pain.

Everything hurt, but he still tried to move away from that tormenting voice.

_ ‘Try not to move too much dear Golden One. My release did more damage to your body then I thought it would.’ _

Terror.

He had to leave. The voice was bad news.

Pain.

But every time he even thought of moving his body screamed in protest.

Terror and pain.

How could he have let this happen?

Terror. So much terror.

How could he have failed his family like this?

_ ‘You haven’t failed anyone, Golden One. You are saving them by staying with me. Remember, I can save everyone you love if you just give yourself to me.’ _

Lies.

The voice speaks lies!

But the pain in refusing is too great.

The terror in staying is too much.

Pain. Terror. Lies.

Someone save him.

Please.

Sephiroth…

Same me…

**FINAL FANTASY 7**

She knew they were getting closer to where Zack was being held captive in this horrible mountain, but she was expecting more resistance, like guards or patrols, or maybe even people just milling about doing nothing that would try to stop them. But other than the monster and a few closed doors that she had to manually cave in, she didn’t see any sign of living life in this mountain base that should hold an entire cultist group for centuries at the least.

She had a bad feeling about all of this. A really bad feeling. And it set her nerves on edge.

So everyone should be able to forgive her for almost cleaving Zack’s head clean off when he came barreling around the corner almost soundlessly, carrying a silent child that couldn’t be any older than two years old. The fact that the only thing that saved Zack from death was a giant sword that was held in front of him as he ran was also another reason that she had struck out, it was long and large, and very close to actually running her clean through.

“Holy shit!” Was the shout that actually brought Rain back to the present and let her know that she had just about killed her favorite uncle because she was too wound up and had lashed out at the first moving thing she saw.

“SHIT!” She then screamed, yanking her blades back and jumping backwards to slam into Sephiroth, causing them both to tumble to the ground.

Sephiroth had blindly reached out to try to stabilize himself when she slammed into him and he ended up dragging both Genesis and Angeal down with him, so it was a pile of bodies and limbs that greeted Zack when he finally peaked out from behind the blade. She saw Zack open his mouth to say something when she felt her head being smacked.

“Language little bird.”

Trust Sephiroth to still try and correct her language even after toppling them all to the ground in front of what could have been an enemy. Though she wouldn’t have actually jumped away if it was an enemy, her swords would have already killed the attacker when she swung them. Nothing actually stops her blades, nothing but the weapons from the planet herself.

“Guys!” Zack finally managed to spit out as Genesis and Angeal disentangled themselves and moved to help her and Sephiroth untangle their own limbs. She hated how flexible and bendable she was sometimes, especially when it led to her being unable to untangle herself from people without help from others not in the pile.

“Hello Zack,” she groaned out. Her side was really starting to hurt a lot. Did she hit it on something when she leaped back? “Glad to see you're free.”

“Yeah…” Zack said hesitantly, staring at her side. “I’m free and I got little Rain with me… And you have a sword sticking out of your side…”

Rain looked down to see that she did, in fact, have a sword sticking out of her side. One that was very long and very thin, and belonged to the man she was still laying on top of.

“So that’s why my side hurts so much,” She said, her tone stuck between awe and bored. “Good to know that I can still get run through by swords on accident.” She then proceeded to yank herself to the opposite side, causing the very sharp Masamune to slice clean through and out of her body.

“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” Genesis screamed out, rushing to her side. His hands glowed with the power of the cure materia he had on his bracer. “ARE YOU EVEN AWARE OF WHAT YOU COULD HAVE POSSIBLY DONE TO YOURSELF?!”

“Other than pulling myself off the blade?” She asked, her head tilted to the side, watching with visible confusion as Genesis started to poke at the blood-stained and torn part of her shirt. “What are you freaking out about, Gene?”

Genesis didn’t answer her, but his motions did start getting a bit more confused. She watched quietly as he started to pull her shirt up to look at her side without the fabric in the way. He looked really confused.

“Where?”

“Genesis?” Angeal called out, moving closer to where they had ended up. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s nothing there,” Genesis muttered quietly, his eyes and hands still running over her side. “She should have a very visible and bleeding cut from Sephiroth’s sword, and yet, she has no wound.”

Rain suddenly understood why Genesis was so confused. She had forgotten about that little side effect from all her years under the scalpel and then living inside a materia until Gaia sent it to Sephiroth. She healed faster than you could hurt her. It wasn’t very pleasant in the slightest. She stepped back and pulled her shirt back into place, turning away from Genesis and looking towards Zack and where he came from.

“I’m not human anymore,” was all she said before walking over to Zack and the child he was holding in his arms. To think she used to be that small and that reliant on people before. Well, maybe she hadn’t been reliant on people, her earliest memory was of Professor Hojo and his labs. He was what made her the inhuman monster she was, and no one could ever convince her otherwise. Besides, humans aren’t supposed to be able to heal as fast as she was, no matter how much mako you pumped into them, nor were they able to regrow any limbs that they may have lost, especially not the head.

Zack, having come back to his senses, held the blade out between him and her. It was a nice thing he did, except it wouldn’t actually stop her if she wanted to end his life. Favorite Uncle or not, no one was better than her even when she wasn’t trying. This was not the fate she wanted for the child in Zack’s arms. She stopped at the end of the blade anyway, looking down the metal to peer at the small bundle in his arms.

The child looked so much like Cloud right now, and she hoped that the little girl would never get the ethereal beauty that she had gained, one because that would mean she was more than human, and two because that beauty was a weapon in and of itself and she would have no teachers on how to be a weapon of grace instead of power. That was the one thing she regretted learning. Men flocked to beauty like hers, and they fell just as hard and ugly as their souls.

“Zack lower your weapon,” Sephiroth said from beside her, snapping her out of her thoughts in time to feel his hand landing on her shoulder. “She isn’t an enemy. She is here to help us.”

“Who is she?” Zack asked, lowering the blade slightly but still keeping it between him and her.

“Who I am is of no importance,” She replied, pushing the blade fully away from her and moving closer to him. “What is of importance is the fact that you smell like smoke, Cloud, and that bastard that tried to deep fry me not too long ago. Did you see a man that looked like Cloud but had golden eyes?”

Zack backed away from her as she approached until his back hit the wall, Rain standing just close enough he could feel the heat coming off her body but couldn’t feel her body yet. He tried to keep the young child closer to him and away from her the entire time. Rain found herself looking down into the young child’s eyes more often then glaring at Zack to demand answers in a way that is entirely genetic from her father.

“Y-yeah,” Zack stuttered out, making Rain snap her eyes back up to him. “Cloud and I were trying to find a way out of this place when we stumbled upon a chamber with a golden dome inside it. We were curious about what it was and it’s in this place, so we decided to try to figure out what it was and if it was important to the bastards here. Except when we got closer to it, CLoud started to get more distant, like he was getting lost in his head and wasn’t paying attention to anything but what was in his head.”

“You found the demon’s cage,” Rain hissed out, spinning around to slam her fist into the wall away from Zack. “Tell me that you guys got separated and the cage didn’t open up.”

“Well we did get separated,” Zack said slowly, almost hesitantly. “But the cage kinda exploded when we got halfway towards it. The only reason me and little Rain here are alive is because Cloud came back to his senses quick enough to shove us behind him and out of the way of the blast and flying pieces of the golden cage dome thing. It was still enough to cause us both to go flying back and out of the room, but because Cloud took more of the blast then I did he was pretty banged up. Then the guy that looked like Cloud but had golden eyes came strolling out of the room like nothing had happened, dropped a piece of the cage on me to keep me from getting up quickly, picked Cloud up, and then strolled away back into the room, caving in the doorway and the halls around me while he was walking away. The ground gave underneath me and I’ve been trying to find my way back up to that room so I can save Cloud from that man.”

Everything was silent in the hallway, and then, as one, the adult Rain and the child Rain screamed in frustrated anguish at the same time, the screams merging together and filling the mountain base so everything rang with the screams.

**FINAL FANTASY 7**

Where am I?

Why is everything black?

Zack?

Zack where are you?

Am I dead?

Hello?

Someone! Please answer me!

_ ‘So you’re still able to hold thoughts that aren’t about me then?’ _

I know that voice! That voice belongs to the man that hurt my family!

_ ‘Hurt them? Why I would never. What my followers do has nothing to do with me. They stopped actually listening to me around a century after I was imprisoned.’ _

No! You hurt them! You hurt Zack and my daughter!

_ ‘When did I hurt them?’ _

The explosion was you! I know it was! You were in that damn golden dome!

You were pulling me to you! I felt it! You bastard!

_ ‘Hmm. So I did hurt them. I’m sorry. I can go find them and make sure they are okay if that will please you.’ _

Where am I? Where did you put me?

_ ‘So demanding and vocal today aren’t we?’ _

Answer me damnit!

_ “You’re locked inside your mind until you finally give into me. If I have to go out of my way to prove to you that I can and will heal and protect your family to do so, then I will. I have no problem with that as long as I can claim you Golden One.’ _

Why are you doing this to me? Why can’t you just leave me alone!

_ ‘Your beautiful Golden One, and because of that, no one else but me are worthy of even looking at you, let alone touching you.’ _

Fuck off! I decide who I am with, and I most definitely am not going to go willingly into the bed of an asshole who thinks much too highly of themselves!

_ ‘I am afraid we are going to have to disagree on that. See-’ _

See what? What points do you have to make that take away my rights to decide who gets to see or touch me?

_ ‘We will have to finish this discussion later. It seems a certain pest has managed to slip under my nose and into my domain. Fear not, though you are stuck in the darkness of your own mind, your body is being well watched over. I am the god of a very devoted cult after all. No harm shall befall you while I am away.’ _

What?

Wait! Don’t go!

Hold on!

Come back!

Don’t leave me here!

I…

I don’t want to be alone…

Someone…

Save me…

Sephiroth…

Sephiroth help me!

Help me, please!

SEPHIROTH!!!

**FINAL FANTASY 7**

_ ‘SEPHIROTH!!!’ _

“Cloud?” Sephiroth muttered, turning his head to look around. “What?”

“Seph?” Genesis asked, moving to walk beside him instead of in front of him. “What’s wrong? Do you need me to start quoting Loveless again?”

“Please don’t,” Sephiroth replied, tilting his head to the side. “I just thought I heard Cloud screaming my name for a second. Must have just been-”

“You heard Cloud screaming your name?”

Sephiroth could only nod dumbly as he found himself suddenly face to face with a very attentive and quick to anger girl. He also unconsciously found himself shifting the child sleeping in his arms closer to himself.

“Call back to him!” Rain looked very excited and also very scared. “Try to see if you can talk to him!”

“How?” Came the dumb reply from his lips.

Rain was silent though, her head tilted in thought. “I don’t know actually. I was told that talking between you both was something that came naturally when it came to the strange connection that even Gaia couldn’t break. Something about projecting emotions instead of words and then being able to pick up words from those emotions?” She shrugged. “Don’t know. You’re on your own. I’ve never been connected to someone like that before. Well not someone I could talk back to and understand.”

Sephiroth nodded and thought of Cloud, of talking to him. He didn’t know what he was doing, since the only time he had ever actually done this was by letting Jenova do the work and then him just walking right on into Cloud’s head. It might not even work the way he was trying, but he had to try if only to say that he did when they found Cloud in this place.

‘Cloud? Can you hear me?’

**FINAL FANTASY 7**

_ ‘Cloud? Can you hear me?’ _

Sephiroth?

_ ‘Cloud?! It actually worked!’ _

How? How did you?

_ ‘No time for the hows when I’m not even sure myself. Where are you? We’re searching for you.’ _

I don’t know where I am at. That bastard that hurt Zack and Rain forced me into isolation in my mind. My body is basically a puppet that he can do whatever with and I will never know. I’ve tried to see what’s happening around me outside of my mind, but I keep hitting a wall that I can’t remove or break down. He’s managed to trap me inside my own head.

_ ‘I see. So he’s taken your will away like I did when under Jenova’s influence, except he has done it much better than I ever could. Interesting.’ _

WHAT PART OF MY CURRENT PREDICAMENT IS INTERESTING TO YOU?!

_ ‘...’ _

Wait… What did you just say?

_ ‘So my thoughts are going over to you without my consent… This is highly concerning… Ignore every mention of Jenova you get from me. I am not under her control and I am not a danger to you now or in the future unless you turn your blade on me.’ _

…

_ ‘Cloud?’ _

I don’t want to be alone again…

_ ‘You won’t be. I promise. When we find you we won’t leave you alone. We’ll find a way to get you out of your head together, okay? And when you get free we can go about being a happy family, okay?’ _

Family? We can be a family?

_ ‘Yes. A family. My time away from Shinra and living and growing with my friends has opened my eyes to a great many things. I also have a young girl named Rain Cresent Strife to thank for that as well. She showed me what family means. What family is.’ _

A child just barely two showed you what family is?

_ ‘No, a young girl who came from a different time to help stop the time loops and to help us defeat the bastard who did this to you did.’ _

Okay. Can’t wait to meet her.

_ ‘Seriously? You’re taking this much better then I thought you would.’ _

Your not the only one with memories of the past, though how you remembered in this life and none of the others is beyond me, but whatever. At least the darkness doesn’t feel as lonely anymore with you around.

_ ‘I’m glad I could brighten your darkness.’ _

That sounded like a really bad pick up line that Zack would use and I am fully prepared to kill you when I am free from my own mind again if you use another one of those stupid lines.

_ ‘Sorry. Zack really has been rubbing off on me, hasn’t he? Maybe I really should take him up on spars more often. Maybe getting thrown around and slammed into things will make Zack stop corrupting me. And maybe the mindless violence will get me thinking straight again.’ _

I like the way your thinking now. Though Zack could use a good ass-kicking after this is all over.

_ ‘Yes. Then I shall give Zackary the toughest ass-kicking I can.’ _

HAHAHAHAHHAHAH!

_ ‘Zack is glancing back at me now and shivering. I think he is onto my thoughts. That or your beautiful laugh is loud enough for him to hear you.' _

God damn it Sephiroth! Stop it!

_ ‘Stop what? Thinking about kicking Zack’s ass or complementing your laugh?’ _

Damnit! You are making it really hard to see you as just a cold military General with no romantic bones in your body right now!

_ “Well, I’m bound to have romantic bones in my body. I have grown up with Genesis after all. That man lives and breaths Loveless and romance. And he is currently sprouting Loveless now. God Damn it.’ _

I can feel your emotions…

_ ‘Forgive me. I am still new to doing this myself.’ _

No!

_ ‘Cloud?’ _

I like having your emotions flow over… I like how warm it’s making me… Your happiness and love for your friends… It’s nice…

…

Seph?

…

Seph what’s going on?!

…

SEPHIROTH!!!

…

…

…

…

It’s getting colder…

I can feel your rage Seph…

I don’t know if you can hear me or not, but you can’t fight while pissed off! It won’t work!

Sephiroth, please!

…

…

…

…

It’s so cold here now…

Am I fated to be alone?

I don’t want to be alone anymore…

Seph…

Help me, please…

…

My darkness is turning to ice…

Your rage is so cold…

I don’t like it…

Please don’t give in to your rage…

He’ll win if you do.


End file.
